“I hate you so much Austin!” I screamed as I popped my head out of the water. He had just pushed me into Lake Winnipesauke off of the water trampoline.
“No you don’t” He said as he stretched out on the warm yellow, black and red trampoline. As I climbed up the ladder towards him I put my finger to my lips to signify to my brother Gus to be quiet. I tip toed over to Austin and rolled him over the side of the trampoline into the water. He squawked as he hit the chilly water and both Gus and I fell over laughing. Just as I recovered from my laughing fit Gus tried pushed me into the water. This, however, did not work as he intended because I grabbed him as I fell and brought him in with me. We both hit the water hard and when we popped out of the water Austin was pointing and laughing at us. Gus and I looked at each other and agreed silently that we would get him in whatever it took. We were successful so all of us dripping wet and laughing flopped down on water trampoline exhausted. After we caught our breath I said “How long have we been out here?”

“I don’t know. Do we care?” sighed Gus ‘

“No but we should probably eat something I’m hungry!” I said

“Ya point” Gus said

“Let’s go in maybe we can go into town and get some ice cream!” I said as I jumped into the water and started to swim toward the beloved island I had known since I was born. As I swam through the clear cool water it dawned on me that I had been here even before I was born when my mom was pregnant with me. Wow I thought I was here even before I had fingers and toes.

Soon enough I was climbing up the ladder onto the wooden part of the deck. I looked up and saw the lake house or “The Big Camp”. It is a big two story house with large porch with trees growing up through it. The steps leading up to the house are about six feet wide and are made of wood as well. They also have bushes growing on one side. As I turned around I look out onto the lake with some boats passing and the occasional jet-ski that we often fantasize about shooting with our nerf guns. Just then Gus climbed up the ladder with Austin right behind him. Gus asked “Have you seen Charlotte lately?” Looking worried
“Yes I have she is right behind you.”
“Oh good” he said as he breathed a sigh of relief “I like to know were she is.” Charlotte is a huge dock spider that lives on our dock at the lake. Dock spiders are completely harmless so she doesn’t worry me much but when she jumps out at you it can be a bit scary. So we headed up the steps, grabbed our towels hanging on the porch and headed up stairs to change. After we had dry clothes on we headed down to the living room where we found my parents reading. “Can we go into town and get some ice cream?” I asked
“Sure but stick together okay?’ said my dad barely looking up from his book.
“We will” all of us agreed so we went down to the dock and climbed ito the tin boat.
The Tin boat is amply named because it is a tin boat. Gus can drive it now and I will be allowed to drive it next year. I am so excited! We backed out of the dock and sped forward. Austin and I were sitting in front and Gus was sitting behind us, driving. We sped past the familiar landscape, if you could call it that.
We watched the islands fly past. We turned a bend and saw town with the large white spire of the town hall and the vast wooden expanse of the town docks in front of it. As we drew closer, we could see The Dock Side restaurant and the people feeding the ducks, which, by the way, you are NOT supposed to do. We slowed as we reached the no wake zone and found a place to dock. We tied the boat to the dock and headed towards Bailey’s Bubble, or “the bubble”, a traditional stop at The Lake.
At The Bubble you can get a frappe, an extremely yummy Ice cream treat that is like a milk shake but better. I always get a chocolate one because that is the best kind. The other thing about the Bubble that you have got to love is that all the portions are huge. The small there is about the size of a large bowling ball. Gus ordered a small cookie dough ice cream in a cup. Austin got a Vanilla frappe and I got, you guessed it, a chocolate frappe.
I sipped my frappe as we walked back through town barefoot. It was hot in town, much warmer than it had been on the island. My feet burned slightly as we walked down the sidewalk, past Black’s toy and paper shop, past Wolfeboro Casual Ware and out into the parking lot by the docks.
“Let’s sit down on the bench for a while until I finish. I will be able to wave surf better that way,” said Gus.
Austin and I agreed and we headed for a free bench underneath the shade of an oak tree. We sat down on the bench as the wind started to pick up a little on the otherwise perfect day. The wind started to really blow as Gus finished his ice cream.
“This weather is perfect for wave surfing,” Gus noticed.
So we headed for the docks. Gus got in first and Austin and I untied the lines. We jumped in and Gus started backing out of the dock. We picked up speed as we passed the “NO WAKE zone”. There were some pretty good waves now and Gus was taking advantage of everyone. He had obviously inherited his father’s admirable talent of surfing the waves. We bounced up and down on every wave, often making Austin and me shriek with fear or excitement. We made pin point turns often spinning around a couple of times before shooting off once more. Then towards the end of our journey we saw a huge boat streak past with a pretty huge wake. Its true the waves were not enormous but compared to the size of our boat and the waves you usually see on the lake they could have been a whole lot of tsunamis, one after the other. In that moment I knew exactly what my brother was thinking. I turned around in my seat and said,
“Oh no!”
He replied, “Oh yes!”
“Gus NO! You’re Crazy,” I squealed. But we were already going top speed towards the waves.
“OH ***,” Austin Screamed.
I wanted to close my eyes as we hit the first wave but all of my muscles seemed to have locked up. We were soaring above the water for at least a couple of seconds, or possibly hours… or maybe, many sunlit days. All I know is that when we hit the water the pain in my butt was so bad all previous thought was obliterated. The seats in the tin boat are wooden and while the bones in my butt hit the wood so hard I’m surprised the seat didn’t crack.
Luckily we all lived, although my left but cheek has never been the same since. We slowed down and eventually stopped. I think in any normal circumstance we would have screamed but we were all silent as we drove slowly back to the island.
Now if you think driving with my brother is crazy, try driving with my dad.