Pogwizd: A Short Story

We came together with my father’s family, the Pogwizd’s, at (put the name of land here when you remember). (Name of land again) was like our little home away from home with it smelled of pine trees. Behind that lurked smoke from a distant bonfire up behind the house with freshly caught salmon grilling over the nearby flames. Cherries, huckleberries, and blackcaps coated the roads and hiking paths near the lake and everything vibrated with the buzz of hummingbirds and bees.

My father brought his ten children to the lake as did his brothers who between the three of them had five more making a total of 15 kids not counting friends. Only the first of six Pogwizd boys was childless and he didn’t come to the lake. Dave at the time was living in …show more content…
Across the lake, my three older sisters and girl cousins were tanning on floatees. They were like beautiful swans gracefully bobbing up and down along the waves with swimsuits and rafts of many neon colors disappearing and reappearing in and out of view. In one hand I held a few smooth stones. With the other, I tried skipping each stone in the direction of their floating paradise like surface missiles seeking targets. When I finished with one handful I’d search the rocky shore for more …show more content…
More shrieks rang from across the shimmering water. I stood knee deep for a while longing to be on one of those floats and then walked in up to my chest then my neck when the ground suddenly gave way. The dead Halloween colored water surrounded me on all sides but I felt no panic as I sank. I watched the surface of the water as it rose away and noticed the sunlight seemed from below to bend and crack. Underwater plants twisted up from the lake bottom. I’d never considered what might live below. A single fish darted above my head a quick silhouette between me and the light and then my feet touched sand and stone and I pushed off hard suddenly very much