The older gentleman was kind. He had caring eyes and was distinct and direct. He was knowledgeable and spoke with authority but still in a tenderhearted manner. Besides his white long-sleeved shirt and baggy pants with suspenders, he had a weathered and tanned face. He had a horseshoe mustache that was white as snow and covered his top lip. It hung down each side of his mouth to his chin. He looked like a woodsman but with the fedora hat he was wearing and with his eloquent speech he appeared to be more of a scholar out of the 1930’s. Both Hazel and Hank thought it odd and that he seemed out of place but they really liked the old gentleman.
With the new and clean dressing over the old man’s head wound, the older gentleman glanced over his left shoulder and saw that the two kids were standing across the room watching him and holding on to one another. He said “there, this should hold for a while. What are your names and it looks like this fellow here is your grandpa.”
“I’m Hazel and this is my brother Hank and yes that is our grandfather. We call him Papa. What’s your name?”
The old gentleman smiled a huge smile showing his teeth and said, “My name is John. Well, Hank and Hazel, do you live close to here?”
“Our mom and dad rented a cottage over on Lake Superior. We live in Florida but came up here for the summer because it is cooler and also to visit our Papa.”
“Yeah! I’ll bet it can get pretty hot down there in the summer.” John continued small talk for only a short period of time. He then inquired of the kids if they had a cell phone to call their parents. Hazel said they did but that it was back in the truck. They had not intended to be on this side of the lake very long, just long enough to have some lunch and explore a little. John informed them that he had neither a vehicle nor a phone but he did have a canoe. “We’re going to have to get your Papa out of here and get him some medical attention. We will have to use the canoe to take him back to your truck, get your phone and call your mother. She’ll know what to do.”
The old man laying on the bed moved his head from side to side and moaned. With his eyes still closed they knew he had a serious concussion. “We’re going to have to move him.” John said with slight concern. He needs to see a doctor. We will get him down to the canoe then paddle over to his truck. You can call your mother from there. If your cottage is where I think it is, it’s not too far from here.”
Hazel glanced up at John “It is about twenty or thirty minutes away. That’s all the time it took us to get here. My phone is turned off but it has a GPS program on it and when I turn it on, momma can find where we are.” John gave her a broad smile but said nothing.
*****
John and the two kids managed to get the old man down to the canoe by the lake. It was hidden under some brush so Hazel and Hank removed the camouflage while John held on to the old man. John carefully lay the kids grandfather in the center of the canoe, Hazel and Hank stepped into the bow as John shoved the canoe gently down into the water. He hooked the three kayaks to the stern of the canoe then stepped in and kneeled using his paddle to shove off saying to Hank, “Okay big guy, grab the paddle up there behind you and let’s move.
The canoe, built of Birchwood, with the three kayaks in tow, glided smoothly across the surface of the lake. It didn’t take long for John and Hank to paddle across the lake to where the truck was parked. With a few last strong strokes from their paddles, the old gentleman and boy headed straight for the embankment. Water was shallow in that location because of the gradual slope out to the deeper water. The canoe ran up onto the bank and Hank jumped out in ankle deep water, grabbed the bow of the boat and pulled it up onto the dry ground so Hazel could jump out without getting her feet wet. John jumped out on the shore line and helped pull the canoe farther up so they could lift the old man from the canoe and take him to the truck and lay him in the back.
*****
Beth was pacing back and forth on the veranda of the cottage they had rented for the summer. Ethan, her husband had been in town when the old man came by to pick the kids up for their daily adventure out into the woods. The previous year he had invented an outdoor lighting system, initially for their camping trips. It became so popular that the system graduated into full outdoor use around homes that responded to an app that he and Beth also developed. Light could be activated from anywhere so long as the app was downloaded on the cell phone. Sales from this system were booming across the southern states and still expanding. It was these sales that allowed the Pearce family to become financially independent.
Ethan had more ideas about how to improve his invention and had gone to a local hardware store to purchase the parts he needed. Pulling his truck up slowly to the cottage he glanced around expecting to see Hazel and Hank. His intent was to get them to help him with his invention improvement.
“Where are the kids” he asked B.
“Daddy picked them up and took them to some inland lake with the kayaks. I checked the GPS on the phone and Hazel must have her phone turned off. Anyway, I’m sure while they were on the water, she wouldn’t have her phone turned on. I just figured she would have called by now.”
“Well, just check the GPS every ten or fifteen minutes. If you don’t see or hear anything in an hour, we’ll start looking.”
B. continued pacing as Ethan had continued working on improving his lighting system. B. picked up her phone to check the GPS once again just as the phone rang. It was Hazel.
“Where have you been girl, I was worried since I hadn’t heard from you. We were just getting ready to…”
Hazel didn’t allow her mom to complete the sentence when she cut in rattling her words a mile a minute, “momma, Papa got hurt. He slipped and fell and hit his head on a rock. An old man named John came by when he heard me scream and he carried him to his cabin close to where we were. John has a canoe so we helped him carry Papa down to the canoe and we paddled back to the truck and that is where we are now.”
“Let me talk to daddy.”
“You can’t, Hazel quickly replied, “he’s still kind of unconscious.”
“What do you mean kind of, either he is or he isn’t.”
“John said he has a bad concussion.”
“Let me talk to John.”
Hazel handed the phone to John and, rolling her eyes said to John handing him the phone, “here, momma wants to talk to you.”
“Yes ma’am, this is John.”
“What happened to my daddy, how is he, is he still unconscious? How long has he been knocked out?”
John smiled, not unkindly, but smiled with the thought that Hazel picked up her rapid-fire speech from her momma. “He hit his head on a rock when he slipped and fell backward. I’ve patched it up but he needs to see a doctor. He is in and out of consciousness and the kids are trying to keep him awake but he really does need to see a doctor.” He handed the phone back to Hazel.