Oakland Lake was more of a pond than a lake. It was in a neighborhood park named Oakland Lake Park so everyone called it a lake. Big enough to paddle a rowboat around on, but not a full-on lake.
Stephen had been walking to this park to goof around since he was nine. He was older and wiser now: proud to be twelve. Everybody was out of school for the summer and the park was Stephen’s favorite place to meet up with his friends and explore. Before leaving his house a few blocks away from the park he had spent some time filling his green backpack full of provisions. He liked that word. The word was used in a National Geographic documentary about hiking in the wilderness. The idea of hiking in the wilderness was a new and exciting idea as his family never went camping or frequented state parks or ever spent much time outdoors. A picnic was about as close as Stephen had ever been to the wilderness or to hiking for that matter. His journey today brought him only a few blocks away from home; he knew he was going to spend the day in the park exploring the wilderness. With the three peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, a thermos of Lipton’s Iced Tea, his newish Swiss Army knife, his brand new camo-colored compass, and his favorite blue ball cap he was set for the day.
The sun was already hot on his back as Stephen walked through the neighborhood. Early mornings smelled of fresh-cut lawns with the long breathing cycles of cicadas sounding from everywhere. The plan for the day was the same as most days this summer. Meet up with Eddie and Jimmy at the park: explore and goof around.
Stephen rounded the corner to Lake Shore Drive and headed into the park. The boys had agreed to meet at the pavilion and figure out what to do. The last couple of days had been spent mostly exploring the woods behind the dam, pretending they were hiking, camping, and exploring in the wilderness.
Up ahead sitting on a table in the pavilion was Jimmy. Although Jimmy was behind Stephen by one year in school he was six inches taller and now it seemed he had short-cropped sandy hair.
“Hey, crew cut,” Stephen said.
“Screw you, dude.”
“Just kidding. looks great. I’m rethinking this long hair this summer. Hot as fuck. Although there is the too-cool-for-school factor.”
“Been waiting for Eddie. He’s late again. Want to just run over to his house and see what’s holding him up? I’m ready to get out in the woods.”
Lifting his large backpack up, “I brought a hatchet and some stuff to make a fire,” Jimmy said.
“In a public park?”
“Yeah. Relax will ya. We’ll get a good ways out in the woods first. Don’t be a wuss.”
“Alright then”
Jimmy launched off the table sliding his pack over his shoulders in one smooth move. They walked down the path that led around the park to where Eddie’s house backed up on the park, scaled the back privacy fence, and dropped down into Eddie’s backyard. Eddie was in the crowded carport wedged between his dad’s pickup truck and ski boat packing a very cool and very new-looking backpack. It was one of those big ones used for backpacking with a metal frame.
“That’s a cool backpack. You think we’re going to hike the Appalachian Trail?” Stephen said with a grin.
Eddie picked up a small piece of folded metal about the size of a fist and started to put it in the backpack.
“What’s that?” Jimmy asked.
“This is really cool. It’s a camping stove”, Eddie said.
Eddie started unfolding the metal and then set it on the hood of his dad’s truck. It was big enough to support a pan or a small skillet and had a burner on the folded-out stand. Eddie reached into the pack and pulled out a propane tank and the connecting hose. He also pulled out a zip bag, unzipped it, leaning it over to show soup packets, spoons, bowls, and a bottle of water.
“Everything we need to make soup,” he said.
Stephen looked at Jimmy, “So maybe we don’t need to make a fire?”
“Oh yeah, we do,” Jimmy said, “fires are fun.”
Eddie reached into his backpack and took out a small aluminum case. “Check this out.” He opened the case and tightly packed in the case sunk in foam recesses were a Super 8 film camera and an extra stash of batteries.
“We’re going to document our wilderness exploration. I might even narrate a bit,” Eddie said.
Stephen showed Eddie and Jimmy his new Swiss Army knife and compass. Not anywhere as cool as a camping stove, and seriously nowhere near as cool as a Super 8 camera. It was lame but it was what he had.
Jimmy showed off his hatchet and flint and steel fire starting kit.
“Real provisions,” Stephen thought.
#
The boys made their way into the park using a path that curved around the side and behind Eddie’s house. It began very narrow and then widened after it left the side of the house.
“So why do you two always climb over our fence? This path is a hell of a lot easier, especially with backpacks on,” Eddie said.
“Because it makes us feel like explorers,” Jimmy said.
“Crewcut you’re a dumbass,” Stephen said.
“You’re going to call me that from now on aren’t you?” Jimmy said.
“Crewcut or dumbass? In both cases the answer is yes,” Stephen said looking over at Eddie’s grin and a nod of approval.
They walked three abreast on the path kicking rocks and admiring the lake on their left. It was still pretty early in the morning and crackles of light broke out on the surface of the water as the sun beat down on Oakland Lake. The light breeze was welcome on any summer morning. On the pole across the lake in the playground and picnic area, the American and State of Texas flags waved gently in the welcome breeze. Only mid-morning it was already hot and would only get hotter as the day made its way to noon. The plan was to be in the shade of the woods before noon where it would be cooler.
Arriving back at the pavilion the boys set their backpacks on three of the large stone picnic tables and decided to take an inventory of their provisions. Stephen had seen this yesterday evening in the documentary that he had been watching on the small television he had in his room. It was a hand-me-down after the family got a new console color TV for the living room. Only three families on the block had color TVs. And Stephen was proud for some reason that his family was one of them.
They dumped all the contents of all three backpacks out on the tables in the pavilion. Eddie dug a small notebook and pencil out of the outside pocket of his pack and said, “Okay. What have we got?”
Stephen was somewhat embarrassed by his meager scattering of stuff. “I’ve got a compass, a Swiss Army knife. But it has tweezers, a toothpick, a fork, a spoon, a screwdriver, and three blades. And I’ve got a ball cap, a thermos of iced tea, three peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and an extra t-shirt,” Stephen said.
Eddie was next up and he listed the things he had, “I’ve got the camp stove, a pan, three metal bowls, metal utensils, matches, packets of soup, three bottles of water, a notebook, my Super 8 camera all loaded up with film, and a contour map of Texas.”
Jimmy said, “How far you planning on hiking today, doofus.”
“Never a bad thing to be prepared, crewcut,” Eddie said.
“Jesus you two,” Jimmy said looking at his table. “Alrighty right. I’ve got a steel and flint fire starter kit, matches in case that doesn’t work, fire starter Fatskicks in case none of that works, a hatchet, a bottle of water, climbing rope, a flashlight, and an eight-foot by eight-foot tarp,” Jimmy said.
“What no flares? Who’s being over-prepared now,” Stephen said.
“Listen, I’ve got an idea about getting into the woods. Instead of walking all the way around the lake let’s climb up the end of the high side of the dam. It will be cool. Like rock climbing,” Jimmy said.
“It’s about 40 feet straight up that side,” Stephen said.
“Exactly, it will be way cool. We have to get up there to get over the fence to get in the woods anyway. Walking all the way around the lake is dumb,” said Jimmy.
Eddie broke in, “Okay boys I’ve got all that written down so we know exactly what we have to work with.” Getting out his Super 8 camera he said, “Give me a minute. I want to document all the stuff we have before we put it back in our backpacks.” Eddie scanned the tables narrating their plan to scale the high side of the dam and make their way to the middle to descend the stone steps into the magic woods of Oakland Lake Park.
Stephen thought it was cool the way he talked into the camera. He sounded a lot like the guy on the National Geographic film he had watched on hiking. Jimmy tolerated it but thought it was kind of dorky.
“Onward through the fog. Let’s set out men and do some serious exploring,” Stephen said mimicking Eddie’s narration voice.
“You are weird,” Eddie said.
“If you mean goofing around in the woods, then I’m all in,” said Jimmy.
With backpacks carefully repacked and secured, the boys struck out on the path that followed the contour of the lake towards the dam on the north side of the lake. The dam was flat on top high above the water and then dropped off straight down on the north side into a densely wooded area that went on for several miles before the opening up where Brentwood Stair Road acted as the access road to I35.
#
The boys set out northeast on the path that led to the dam. It was a nice walk with the lake on the right and ever-thickening woods on the left. The path was easygoing. One had to pretend pretty hard that you were hiking in the wilderness while in the maintained part of the park. The paths were meticulously groomed granite gravel edged in limestone rocks. That would change once they got up on top of the dam and headed north down the limestone stairs into the thick uncleared woods. Those woods were the boy’s favorite part of the park. The woods weren’t part of the park technically speaking. None of the boys knew exactly who owned them. None of that was important. What was important was to get lost in the fantasy of becoming explorers hiking in the wilderness.
Jimmy was in front and scrambled off the path and began the steep forty-foot climb up the west end of the dam. Eddie was next followed by Stephen. Jimmy was able to find handholds and footholds in the beach ball size limestone rocks lining the outside of the dam. The climb was easier for Jimmy as he was taller than the other two, had long arms, was good at sports, and had practiced climbing with his dad at an indoor rock climbing wall. Having completed the climb, Jimmy helped Eddie and Stephen as they struggled with the climb.
“Eddie, just above your left hand, there’s a good hold. Stephen, you okay?” Jimmy said.
“My legs are killing me and I’m only half the way up,” Stephen said.
Sweat poured into Stephen’s eyes making it impossible to see. He shook his head blinking the sweat out of his eyes trying to return his vision to at least usable. He looked down twenty feet below at the jagged rocks that would not make a comfortable landing if he should fall. His eyes stung.
“If you promise to stop calling me crewcut I’ll throw a rope down to you,” Jimmy said.
“That will not be necessary. This isn’t Mount Everest. Jesus dickhead,” Stephen said.
Eddie scrambled to the top with a couple more verbal prompts from Jimmy.
“Hang on Stephen I got you covered,” Jimmy said.
“Stephen, you have a good handhold. There’s a good foothold just above your right foot. Piece of cake, man, you got this,” Jimmy said.
“Thanks, Jimmy. Sorry, I called you dickhead,” Stephen said.
After a bit of touch and go, Jimmy, Eddie, and Stephen were forty feet above the water on top of the dam. They followed the narrow path on top of the dam, blue water below on the right and green forest below on the left. Stephen was more than a little embarrassed by his poor performance during the climb. Not being particularly athletic he always wanted to be better at stuff like that. But he wasn’t. He was more of a book guy.
#
When they got to the middle of the dam they stopped to admire the view. It was beautiful. The breeze was stronger up there and felt good. Stephen had completely sweated through his shirt during the climb and the breeze turned his shirt to what felt like ice. The air smelled of lake water and forest decay. The sunlight was dazzling white with only a hint of clouds in the south directly across the lake on the house-speckled horizon.
Eddie said, “Stephen, break out that thermos of iced tea. We should get some liquid in us and cool down before we go any further.”
Sitting on top of the world they sat down, passed the cool sweet iced tea around, and enjoyed the late summer morning. “You know it is a whole lot easier just to use the rock stairs in the middle of the dam,” Eddie said as he took his his Super 8 camera out of his backpack and a wide panoramic sweep-shot of the lake and ending up panning into the look over the treetops of the woods.
#
“Alright let’s get to it,” Jimmy said.
The boys got up, took one last look around, enjoying the view, and descended the rock stairs that lead down from the center of the dam. As they descended the stairs and entered the woods the temperature noticeably dropped. They pretended that the wooded area behind the dam was a forest. The trees were very dense immediately behind the dam and the leaves filtered the light: a huge relief from the harsh sun on top of the dam. The boys continued down a deer path that headed north away from the dam with Jimmy out in front as always, Eddie next, and Stephen brought up the rear. They walked for about fifteen minutes without speaking, taking in the gloom of the dense forest. The path curved to the right and the woods opened to a small clearing surrounded by more dense woods. In the middle of the clearing was a circle of four cairns about waist-high made from black flat rocks with the center carved out creating stone circles. The bottom circle was about two feet wide and the top circle was about two inches in diameter. Directly outside the cairns were branches stuck in the ground carved to look like spears with sharpened points on the top. Tied to the top of each branch was a different colored weathered faded cloth flag.
In the center of the circle was a wooden rowboat painted green with blue trim.
#
All three boys stopped frozen in time staring at what was in front of them.
“What the hell is that?” Stephen finally said.
“I’ve never seen that before. I know I’ve been down this path a million times,” Jimmy said.
Eddie walked up to the circle and began to walk around the circle reaching up and touching the colored flags. Jimmy and Stephen followed behind him all circling the circle of cairns and flags.
“Is this some kind of magic circle?” Stephen said.
“What? You mean like witchcraft for something?” Jimmy said.
“Well, look at it. What does it look like to you?” Stephen said.
Getting his notebook and pencil from his backpack, Eddie stopped and reached up and held a yellow flag in his hand, and said, “No I think this is something else. Look at the colors. They have to mean something. Maybe something to do with the directions on a compass.”
“What makes you think that?” Jimmy asked.
“My dad’s encyclopedia set. You should read a bit. Does wonders. I’ll check it out tonight and put it in our notes,” Eddie said, holding up his notepad.
Eddie continued to write in his notebook and sketched a rough drawing of the circle and the boat in the middle. “Stephen, get out your compass and see which directions these flags and stacks of rocks are set in. I’ll bet you a hundred bucks that the white one is north.”
Stephen and Eddie worked together with the compass noting the direction of each of the cairns and flagpoles. Then updated Eddie’s drawing and notes. The white flag was in the north. Eddie picked up one of the rock circles off one of the cairns and looked closely at it. Scratched into the stone were symbols. The markings looked worn. They looked old. This is really weird,” Eddie said.
Stephen looked at the stone and said, “Eddie, draw those symbols from each cairn and look them up when you get home. See if you can figure out where they come from. They look sort of Celtic.”
“How the hell do you know what Celtic symbols look like?” Jimmy said.
“Because he actually reads books. All the way through and everything,” Eddie said to Jimmy. There was an uncomfortable silence.
Stephen and Jimmy looked at the rocks picking them up and carefully replacing them exactly as they were. Jimmy sat and sulked. Eddie took his Super 8 movie camera out of his pack and started filming the circle walking all the way around it. He also got some good footage of the green wooden rowboat with blue trim. The boat was old, they didn’t make boats like that anymore. It was made completely of wood. The paint was old and faded and worn off in spots.
“The boat looks sea-worthy,” Stephen said.
“Sea-worthy? What the hell are you talking about? It is a rowboat, not an ocean liner. You are a trip Stephen,” Jimmy said.
“Okay crewcut let us not get overly excited,” Stephen said.
“The boat does look sound. We should take it out on the lake. That would be cool,” Eddie said.
“Now there’s a stellar idea, my friend,” said Jimmy.
“How will we get it in the water?” Stephen said.
“Always the doubter. You should use Eddie as an example and maybe astound us with a stellar idea of your own someday. We’ll figure that out tomorrow. I’m tired. Let’s boogie,” Jimmy said.
“Well here’s a stellar idea crewcut. How about we eat something. I’m starving,” Stephen said.
“I don’t know about stellar but that is an excellent idea to be sure,” said Eddie.
#
The day was sliding into the late afternoon and the boys realized that all were in fact starving. They decided to just eat Stephen’s peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and save the soup for tomorrow. They ate the sandwiches while continuing to look closely at the magic circle with the green and blue rowboat in the center: amazed at what they had found. None of them remembered ever seeing any of this here before today. They agreed that Eddie would research the circle, flag colors, and symbols. He would also figure out a way to swipe the oar out of his dad’s ski boat. Jimmy would figure out how to get the boat in the water. With all that decided the boys geared up with their backpacks on and headed back up the deer path, up the rock stairs to the top of the dam, and using the rope secured to a boulder lowered themselves down to the path.
“See you guys tomorrow at eight in the pavilion. That work for you two? Stephen said.
“That’s cool with me, Jimmy said.
“Why don’t you guys come by my house like you did this morning and help me get that oar out of the carport without getting caught,” Eddie said.
“Sounds great guys. Onward through the fog,” Stephen said.
“Dumbass,” Jimmy said.
#
The next morning Jimmy and Eddie had already swiped the oar out of Eddie’s family ski-boat when Stephen arrived.
“How do we get it out of here without my mom seeing,” Eddie said.
“We just take it over to the fence on this side of the yard and chuck it over,” Jimmy said.
“I don’t know,” Eddie said.
Before Eddie had time to object, Jimmy grabbed the oar out of Eddie’s hand, ran over to the fence, and threw it over in one smooth motion. It landed on the other side with a satisfying thump. “Well I guess that takes care of that. You guys make everything so complicated.”
“And you are such a dick,” Eddie said.
“Okay guys. Let’s settle down. We got a boat to launch,” said Stephen.
The boys grabbed their backpacks, retrieved the oar from the other side of the fence, followed the path to the pavilion, headed to the dam, used the ropes they had set to climb the rock side of the dam with a good bit less drama than the day before, and finally descended the rock steps into the woods.
#
The circle with the green and blue boat was still where it had been the day before. They sat down and admired the boat, the cairns, and the poles with the colored flags on top. Eddie explained that he had researched colors of the flags and compass directions associated with each. It did match up. White was used to represent the north in several cultures. But the rest of the colors weren’t in sync with any of the systems he had looked up. He explained that as for the symbols on the cairn rocks, he couldn’t find anything that looked exactly like the markings on the rocks. The closest thing he could find were Celtic runes as Stephen had thought. But they didn’t match up with those either. Eddie and Stephen smiled. Proud of their work. Jimmy was poking a stick in the ground with more force than necessary.
Stephen jumped in, “Excellent so now, crew cut, how are we going to get the boat in the water?”
“Well as usual you guys are thinking maybe a crane, perhaps a helicopter transport or some such. It is very simple. We just all three carry the boat down the path and up the stairs. Then, much like the oar, we just chuck it in the water,” Jimmy said.
All three boys looked at each other. “That will work,” Eddie said.
The boat was not as heavy as they expected and was easily carried by Jimmy and Eddie down the path and up the stairs. Once on top of the dam Eddie said, “On three. One, two, three!” The boat sailed through the air and splashed down in the water luckily right side up. Stephen immediately dove in after the boat.
“Hey dumbass, who decided that you go first?” Jimmy yelled.
Eddie had his Super 8 camera out and was filming.
“I did, crew cut. Eddie, are you getting all of this? Now throw me the oar and try not to hit me with it,” Stephen yelled back.
The oar came spashing down a few feet from Stephen. He swam over and retrieved the oar and swam one handed over to the boat. It was a little harder getting in the boat than he had anticipated. He finally hoisted himself in the boat without tipping it over. An uproar of laughter and cheering erupted from the top of the dam.
Jimmy yelled, “Please tell me you got that on film.”
“I sure did. Sorry Stephen but that was pretty good when your ass was up in the air. Can’t wait to watch that tomorrow. I’ll bring my projector and a sheet and we can all watch,” Eddie said.
Rowing the boat was not too hard. Switching oar from side to side made it pretty simple to steer the boat. Heading out to the middle of the lake Stephen saw something strange. Just about in the center of the lake there was a current circling a spot of completely calm water. The water in the center was like glass. The sky was reflected perfectly in the center of the swirling current. Except the reflected sky in the center was a light purple lavender color. He guided the boat over to the circle.
“Hey guys. This is weird. Do you see this?” Stephen said.
“See what?” Eddie called.
“There’s a circle out here where the water is smooth and reflects a purple sky,” Stephen called back, “I’m going to head into the circle.”
Eddie yelled, “Hey not sure if that’s a good idea Stephen.”
It was too late. The boat with Stephen inside suddenly vanished.
#
Stephen blinked and shook his head as the light all around the boat and in the sky changed to a bright lavender. The sky was lavender with white clouds. It was oddly quiet. No traffic, no sound.
“Hey this is freaking weird,” Stephen yelled, glancing up toward the dam. His heart sank to the bottom of his stomach. His hands began to shake. A cold sweat formed on his forehead.
Jimmy and Eddie were gone. The dam was half as high as it should be. The pavilion and all the paths were gone. No playground. No flagpole.
#
Up on top of the dam. Stephen and Eddie were freaking out. Stephen and the boat were just gone. There one instant and gone the next. Just winked out.
“Are you still filming,” Jimmy asked.
“Uh, yeah I think so. Yeah it’s running,” Eddie said.
Jimmy was frantic. Eddie was stunned. “What the fuck do we do?” Jimmy asked.
Eddie answered in a small voice, “I don’t know.”
#
Stephen was stunned. His mind raced. He could barely breathe. Fear crept up the back of his neck burrowing into the reptilian core of his brain. Taking some deep breaths he tried to slow his mind down. He looked up at the sky again. The lavender sky was bright, too bright, making him squint. The water below the boat was perfectly smooth. The sky reflected in the water below made the bright light worse. Okay, everything changed when the boat entered the circle of swirling water, he thought. He felt a faint breeze of hope pass over him as he thought, What if I paddle out of the circle? What will happen? Maybe everything changes back. Stephen gingerly paddled the rowboat towards the edge of the calm glasslike circle. He crossed the swirling current. He felt the current as it tugged the rowboat sideways then the release as he glided into the lake. Stephen’s eyes began to well up as nothing changed; the sky was still lavender. He could still see the swirling circle of current with the smooth circle of water in the center. Glancing up towards the dam, it too was still half the size it should be. All the paths, the pavilion, the playground, the flagpole were all gone. What the fuck is going on, he thought. Suddenly he felt the familiar tug of the current pulling the boat sideways. Panicking he thought, Shit I’m drifting back into the circle.
#
Jimmy and Eddie stood on top of the dam with the breeze blowing in their faces trying not to cry. Eddie started to ask Jimmy if they should call the police or get Eddie’s mom to help when the rowboat with Stephen in it popped into view. “Holy shit Eddie. Look. He’s back,” Jimmy screamed.
Eddie yelled, “Stephen you okay? What the fuck just happened?” Looking at his watch, “You vanished for three minutes and fourteen seconds. Row the boat over to the shore over by the pavilion. We’ll meet you there. We need to talk about this. That was fucked up. What did it look like to you? Crap, never mind we’ll talk on the shore. ”
“Fine by me. I want out of this fucking boat,” Stephen said.
#
Stephen finally exhaled. The sky was back to normal deep blue. The light was back to normal harsh white. He had never seen anything so beautiful. Stephen carefully rowed the boat towards the shore, giving a wide berth to the swirling circle. He paddled straight into the shore, hopped out and pulled the boat up onto dry land.
#
Jimmy and Eddie hauled ass down the rope left tied off from their climb. They sighted the pavilion and the rowboat just on the other side. Stephen was seated leaning against a tree with his legs tucked up, arms around his knees, rocking back and forth.
#
Jimmy and Eddie looked at Stephen not liking what they were seeing. The rocking back and forth was not good. Eddie reached down and put his hand on Stephen’s shoulder. Stephen flinched and pulled away. Eddie squatted down looking into Stephen’s face, “Are you okay, man?”
Jimmy said, “We need to get him to snap out of this. That was messed up what I saw.”
“No, we need to sit here with him and let him work through this. I know that’s a little too sensitive for you to understand but …”
“Don’t get all high and mighty on me, I’m just kind of freaked out.”
“We are all just kind of freaked out.”
“Okay let’s just sit and take a minute.”
Stephen stopped rocking and looked around, then looked at Eddie, “We need to get rid of this thing. All of it. The boat. The circle. The stones. All of it. Nobody can stumble on this thing, whatever it is, and get caught. I mean get lost. Not be able to get back.” Stephen stood up. “Alright guys let’s get busy.”
The boys stood there looking at the rowboat and planned what to do next. They quickly came to agreement that they would dismantle the circle, bury the stones, flags, and poles, and sink the rowboat in the lake. The burying of the stones, flags, and poles turned out to be quite a lot of effort using shovels from Eddie’s carport but the boys worked hard. The sinking of the rowboat was the scariest part of the task. None of them would get in the boat. They pulled it out into a deep part of the lake, careful to stay away from the center of the lake. The boat had a drain plug that they opened up and swam back to shore. The boys stood silently watching the boat fill with water and slowly slip down below the surface of Oakland Lake. As the boat disappeared from sight the boys nodded to each other in silent agreement that no one would ever hear of any of this. A shared secret. A pact. Stephen liked that word. It fit into the whole adventure they had experienced here in the familiar Oakland Lake Park. The park that now and forever would no longer be familiar.
#
The boys never met in the park again. They never spent summer days pretending to be adventurers. They grew older, transferred to different schools, and their friendships faded. Each in his own way would remember the events of the last couple of days. Each replaying of the memory distorted the memory to the extent that each of them as old men wondered if any of it ever really occurred.
Art Davis Studios 