Down The Path Page 10
So, all in all he needed 20 timbers.
With the logistics worked out, Cooper did what he did best; he put his bright red head down and got to work.
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It had taken 3 entire days, but his raft was finished. He had even built in some holders for his fishing rigs so he could toss out some bait while floating down the river. He had tested its buoyancy and its balance while building it and only needed to tweak the design a small amount. Most of the changes were due to the fact that some of the logs seemed to float better than others, so he just rearranged them in the raft.
He was also very pleased with the extra logs around the edges to give it the lip. Those logs also allowed him to have something to leverage against with his steering pole.
The whole time during construction, he had been thinking about steering, but had come up with no better solution than a stout stick, so he planned on starting out with that and adapting as need be.
The last afternoon in the elbow of the river was spent on final testing of his raft. He had used stones to try to figure out how much weight it could hold, but after gathering all the stones he could find and adding his own weight, it didn’t seem to have any trouble holding it all up, so he was satisfied.
It wasn’t fully water tight by any means though. Water sloshed in through the timbers that made up the floor, but it wasn’t much and it had grown warm so he didn’t mind; especially knowing that his pack had that waterproof pocket. Even with the special pocket, he added one extra timber to hold his pack aloft; he considered it his flagpole and his pack the ultimate symbol of his crusade.
Lupe wanted nothing to do with the raft. He had even tried bribing her onto it with pieces of salt carp, but she wouldn’t get near it. Cooper was actually worried that she might not want to run along while he floats down the river, and feared their friendship might end if she got bored. He had grown very attached to his faithful and furry companion.
He could do nothing about it though, he had tried to bribe her and she had refused. If this was how they parted, he had very much enjoyed her company and was certain the same was true for her.
After a good nights rest and a solid breakfast, He pushed off. His little craft teetering slightly as he shoved off with his stick. He was surprised to see how quickly the river actually carried his raft along. The river didn’t appear to moving that quickly, but he was moving at a speed equivalent to jogging briskly.
At least for this morning, Lupe had decided to run alongside the river, apparently enjoying the pace greatly. His one fear was his stopping ability. He had fashioned up a makeshift anchor, a mass of small but stout sticks on a thick cord that he could heave into the trees on the bank. He wasn’t sure if this stopper would hold up to these speeds, or if he would be able to hold onto the rope and not get tugged into the water. He would find out that answer the first time he tried to stop, he couldn’t wait any longer trying to come up with better stoppers.
Floating down the river was very relaxing. He didn’t have much to do, every so often he would push off the bottom to nudge the craft slightly one direction, although it wasn’t really needed, he was mostly practicing. He hadn’t caught any fish yet, but he had one baited with a bit of rodent and the other with a salted crawdad. He expected something to chase after one of them, but it hadn’t happened.
With the day going so well, Cooper decided not to stop for lunch, but to nibble on food reserves while floating. He was enjoying watching Lupe run along the bank. She had started a ‘stop and go’ pattern it seemed. She would meander off and rest he supposed, then come charging back up and run alongside for some time.
When the sun began going down, Cooper knew it was time to test his stopper. He had lied to himself about why he had not stopped for lunch, the real reason was that he was nervous about the stopper. There was no avoiding it this time unless he planned on going down the river in the dark. That was an idea that made him much more nervous than testing the stopper.
Trying to plan it properly, he waited until he drifted closer to the shore and then gave the stopper a great heave into what looked like a cluster of small trees in front of him. This allowed him to slowly increase the tension as he drifted past, hoping to stop slowly versus the dangers of an abrupt stop. He gripped the rope tight and planted his feet against the lip.
The rope seemed to stretch slightly, allowing for a calm stop. His stopper had worked vastly better than he imagined. The current gently swung his raft into the other bank and full stop had been achieved. It was a glorious victory and Cooper was grinning from ear to ear.
Lupe had fallen behind and he didn’t see her anywhere as he was pitching his tent and building his fire for the evening. While roasting some crawdads over the fire, she loped on up, looking none the worse for wear, having just run most of the day. She gobbled up many more crawdads than usual though, that was the only sign of the pace she had kept up all day long.
Pulling out his map, he had no idea how far he had gotten. The landscape looked largely the same and the map provided no real clues as the river was largely straight. The next real sign where he could pinpoint his location was the confluence with a much larger river. It appeared days away though and hopefully those days would be as relaxing as the first one had been.
17
The next day was largely the same as the first; a leisurely ride down the river with his trusty companion running along the bank. When he stopped for the night, he could see downriver and it appeared he met up with the larger river just downstream from his camp for the night.
Off to the west he could see great plumes of smoke. He had never seen so much smoke; the whole land must be on fire. He couldn’t smell the smoke though and thought it may be further away than it looked. He thought about staying here several days and exploring to find the source of the smoke or to see how it affected the landscape, but decided against leaving the river just yet.
Looking at the map, he was astounded he had covered so much ground in only two days! If only his trip back could go as quick, but that would be completely on foot. He was beginning to suspect that he would be back in the city much earlier than anyone expected. He had gone such a great distance, he wasn’t sure how much farther he should go.
As he was eating his dinner that night, he was thinking back to what Walter had told him. To take his time. Not to rush back. Gather as much information as possible. When Cooper really thought about it, he wasn’t gathering any new information anymore. Everything looked the same. He had learned about the crawdads and the whisker fish that could sting you, he had met a dog, gotten a terrible illness, and tested a large amount of survival skills, but other than that he was not picking up new things to bring home with him.
He certainly didn’t want to displease Walter though, and he knew he was not ready to turn back yet. Perhaps when it was time to head home, he would just know it, much like he knew when he hit the right river all those nights ago.
The next morning started as the others. He woke, broke camp, ate a bit and shoved off the bank. As he proceeded closer and closer to the larger river, he knew he had misjudged things.
This other river was massive. It must have been five times wider than the one he had been traveling on. He tried throwing his stopper but it wasn’t finding good purchase and instead just pulling through the bushes by the shore. Then he tried putting his feet over the edge and kicking with all his energy. The kicking seemed to be working, but much too slowly.
As he was considering abandoning his trusty vessel, he realized it was too late. The current picked up speed and he was slung out into the wide river.
There was no way at all for him to reach the shore with his stopper from the middle of this river. Apart from the size difference, he quickly realized he could not reach the bottom for steering either and the current seemed to be moving much quicker.
Panic was beginning to set in. He tried to calm himself and think of his situation in order to find a way out, but that wasn’t helping, he was at the whim o
f this giant, churning, brown beast. He would only go where she wanted to send him; his only hope was that at some point, she sent him closer to the bank.
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The sun had climbed to midway through the sky and he was still at the mercy of the river. Oddly, he seemed to be staying almost right in the middle of the thing, drifting neither left nor right. The current seemed to have slowed, so that had his spirits up. The very strange thing, Cooper thought, is that the water tasted as if someone had dumped salt into it. At first, he thought he just had some salt still on his mouth, having just eaten salt carp, but this flavor persisted. The water appeared the same brown, muddy color it always had.
Looking out farther downriver, he saw several things in the middle of the river. He couldn’t tell what they were, but they were definite shapes. He prepared himself in case whatever it was could bring him good fortune in getting off this blasted river.
As he neared the objects, he noticed they were land. There was land right in the middle of the river; many chunks of it. His heart nearly stopped when he looked past this land though. It appeared the river was going to dump him out into a lake as vast as the one he had left back at the city.
He knew he had to act quickly when this land came up. He decided right away that if he couldn’t get his stopper to work, he would abandon the raft and swim for it. He could not allow himself to be swept out into the vast lake. He regretted not having practiced swimming with the pack on, but he assumed he could manage having always been a strong swimmer.
His craft approached the islands of what appeared to be dirt and he could see straight away that his stopper would not have anything to grab onto. He was readying all his courage for a plunge into the swift moving river when he noticed the depth was greatly reduced now.
The river, at least directly under his craft, had grown incredibly shallow. Cooper grabbed for his steering pole and used it, along with the current, to quickly push himself directly into one of the islands.
His wooden home crashed into the mud island with a thumping sound. At first he feared it may have damaged the craft, but a quick visual inspection seemed to show that everything was still fine. It didn’t matter either way though, as he saw no real need for his raft anymore.
18
Lupe was on the shore and was barking wildly at him. She was apparently not happy with the situation, but Cooper was thrilled. He had not been swept out there without any real way back.
Looking off into the vast lake, he noticed a few things different than his lake back home. First off was the taste of the water. It had grown even more salty here. Also, it seemed to have steady waves coming in even though he saw no storm clouds on the horizon.
Cooper was only mildly perplexed by this southern lake; he assumed there would be differences. What really surprised him was that it wasn’t on any of his maps. The lake by his city was on the map, why wasn’t this one? Was it possible he had traveled so far south to have left his map? No, he ruled that out immediately. The distance on the big river on his map was double the distance on the smaller one. There was no way he traveled that far in half a day. Either way, his map showed the big river just stopping at the end of the paper, it didn’t show it ending in another vast lake.
He imagined he would have plenty of time to think about that later. Now he was focused on getting over to the actual land and off these muddy, sandy islands. It was easy enough to cross several of them, although one he had to hurl himself across because it was very deep.
Now he had run into a problem though. The last bit of water between himself and the land, and a very forlorn looking Lupe on the other side, was wide and deep with a fast moving current. Where the river seemed to be lazily moving through the other, shallow gaps, it was shooting through this one with a ferocity that threatened to sweep him away.
The sun was already setting and he thought he might just jump as far as possible and swim towards shore as it swept him out; a trick he had watched Lupe do several times. Much to the dog’s dismay, he decided instead to pitch his tent and relax for the night. He saw no reason to rush into doing anything. He had been lucky so far and didn’t want to push it.
He had ample wood for a fire as the mudflats were littered with wood, although much of it was wet. He was able to scrounge up a goodly pile and built a very large fire while the sun was going down. As he was relaxing and nibbling on some dinner, he swore he heard what sounded like a great horn, but the waves crashing on the shore seemed to throw out a variety of unknown sounds.
That night, he slept as well as he had on the entire journey; the sound of the waves gently relaxing his mind into a very peaceful sleep.
He woke up to yet another amazing sunrise. The view of it out over the massive lake was truly impressive. His lake at home was in a northerly direction, so he had never seen a sun rise or set over a body of water such as this. It was magnificent.
Cooper was trying to spend time writing down anything that was different from back home and when he went to write about this sunrise, he had to scratch out several other ‘most beautiful sunrise’ comments from other mornings. He wondered how in the world it could continue to get more beautiful.
As the sun began climbing higher and its colorful morning symphony was coming to an end, his thoughts turned to getting across the deep water and onto permanent land.
He began pacing over to the channel that he needed to cross and he noticed it seemed wider. How could that be? It hadn’t rained. He assumed he was mistaken, but just to be sure, he stuck a log in the ground at the water level and walked over to the other side of his little mud flat. The whole thing seemed smaller actually. Was he misremembering? Had the little island just seemed larger when he first saw it?
Lupe began barking on the other shore again. He noticed that she was pacing restlessly now. She hadn’t left that little spot since he was first stuck on that island.
Coopers best idea had been to jump across the water and swim as hard as he could to shore, but with the distance seemingly larger, that was becoming less likely. He walked back over to that side to inspect it again and he immediately noticed his stick was underwater!
The water was certainly rising, and he had no idea why. Rushing back to his tent, he stumbled over his pile of extra firewood and smashed his knees into the pile. He didn’t seem to notice this as he rushed to pack all of his gear. He knew rising water was a serious problem, especially if you are on a tiny island.
The current of the river seemed to be slowing down also, but he was far beyond assuming anything about this river. He had hoped to transition his raft into some sort of bridge, but the rising water had already claimed his small craft and it was drifting out into the lake.
After he had everything packed and he was preparing to jump into the water, he noticed another change. There was a soft hum, almost a thrumming coming across the water. He couldn’t see what in the world was causing it, nor did he have any time to care. Cooper was either going to jump into the water or the water was going to jump onto him; it was best if he controlled how it happened.
He took several steps back, getting a nice, long runway for what would be a jump attempt he knew to be physically impossible. Digging his feet in, he tried to shut out Lupe’s frantic barking as well as the increasing thrumming sound.
Kicking off with every muscle he had down to his toes, he began sprinting, the pack bouncing awkwardly on his back and throwing off his stride. As he was running he was staring straight at Lupe on the other bank. For the first time, he noticed she was not currently barking at him, but behind him and to his left. Legs pumping and preparing to launch himself into the air, he glanced over his shoulder to see a craft out there and an arm waving at him!
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Skidding to a stop in the soft mud, Coopers whole brain seemed to bend slightly, his vision quivering.
What he was seeing couldn’t be real. There was a man in some kind of boat, waving at him and the boat was now making a large racket. Somehow this boat was moving quic
kly even though he saw no paddles or current pushing him along.
His island had now shrunk to roughly the size of his tent; soon the water would be at his ankles. The strange boat pulled right up into the shallows and beached itself in the soft mud.
A man was still waving at him to come over. He was taller than cooper, with very short, light brown hair and a medium build. Cooper also noticed that the man had a very deep tan and many wrinkles around his eyes, forehead and mouth even though he didn’t look too much older than him.
Seeing as he had exactly zero other options, Cooper walked over to the man and offered him potatoes.
The man laughed and laughed, causing those wrinkles to crease up and becoming readily apparent why he had so many of them.
“Hop on in boy; you can keep your spuds. We used to have a process for new folks, but you’re all outta time.” He said all this while somehow still laughing.
“Thank you sir, I come from the north and…”
“You’ll get to say all that stuff, but no need to waste it on me. Now climb in this boat and let’s get shoving off. Names Tom, I catch fish”, the man said with a gruff, but pleasing demeanor.
“Thank you again sir, my name is Cooper and I grow food, I suppose”
“Well, you ain’t growing much on that little spit of land. So, is the hairy blonde a friend of yours?”
“Ummmm….no, well yes. She has been following me on my journey and….”
“Well, let’s get her then. What’s one more right?” the man seemed prone to interrupting him, but Cooper didn’t know if he was just talking too much. He tried to be concise with his conversations to match this man, Tom.
Much to Cooper’s surprise, Lupe climbed right aboard the boat and sat in the front. The boat itself looked much like the ones in his city, except this one was not being paddled around while someone else bailed out water. In fact, it seemed totally water tight.