“Thank goodness for GPS especially in these deep woods” Ethan mentioned to B. “I’m going to have a talk with that old man of yours. Maybe that fall knocked some sense into his head.”
B. just rolled her eyes and said “the map shows another ten minutes. Turn left up here in a quarter of a mile.” B. said pointing straight ahead. “I remember. Daddy took me here a few years ago. It’s a rough gravel road.”
Ethan glanced at her then turned his focus on the road ahead thinking about the rough road. “No wonder your dad’s truck is such a rattle trap. A few trips down this road could really tear a truck up.”
“There they are, up on the left.” B. said squinting her eyes.
“Yep!” I see them.
*****
Hazel had pulled a blanket from the truck and laid it down on the bed of the truck then John with the help of Hazel and Hank laid the old man down to make him more comfortable then formed a pillow for his head.
Ethan pulled up behind the old truck and B. jumped out, running up to the kids hugging them and looking at her daddy said, “well old man, how are you feeling?”
Trying unsuccessfully to laugh, the old man simply said “spectacular.” As his eyes rolled back in his head and rested his head back on the pillow Hazel formed for him.
“Thank you so much for helping. They were really fortunate you were here in the area. The kids said you have a cabin near here?” B. said in a questioning tone.
John just pointed across the lake and up the hill. “Up there, about a quarter mile back in the woods. Secluded, just the way I like it.”
Both B. and Ethan glanced at him but said nothing. Then B. said “we need to get daddy to the doctor. Thank you so much for helping” she said to John as she placed her hand on her daddy’s forehead.
John said nothing just held up his hand in a waving motion as he shoved the canoe back in the water then climbed in and began to paddle. He turned his head looking over his left shoulder, raised his paddle to wave and yelled out “good luck” then continued gliding across the glass surface of the frigid water.
*****
As they watched John quietly paddle his canoe across the lake, Ethan lifted the old man and seated him in the back seat of the old pick-up truck crew cab. “You drive your dad’s old rattle trap and the kids and I will follow you to the emergency room.”
An emergency room attendant brought out a wheel chair as B. and Ethan helped the old man out of the truck. “Okay, you don’t need us around any longer, you get your dad checked in and I’ll take the kids on home. Give me a call and let me know how things are going” Ethan said to B. with a caring voice.”
*****
“I’d like to keep him here over night for observation” the doctor said to B. “He really had a nasty fall. With a head wound like that it’s a wonder it didn’t kill him. He is really lucky.”
“I hope it knocked some sense into that old head of his” B. said smiling with humorous sarcasm. “Bye daddy, I love you.”
The old man looked up at his daughter with glassy eyes, “love you too girl, thank you” and bowed his head slightly as the attendant wheeled the old man down the hallway to his room.
*****
A crisp morning breeze came out of the north across gitche gumee. Both brother and sister were sitting on strategically placed Adirondack chairs on the beach near the rolling waves of the big water. Both wearing loose fitting jackets that rippled in the cool morning lake breeze, both sitting in silence enjoying the seagulls low and slow flight overhead. Listening to their songs of thanks and praise to our maker.
“Hazel, why is Lake Superior called Gitche Gumee?”
“I asked Papa the same question. He told me that it is the Ojibwe Indian name for big water. He said it is actually pronounced gitchi gami but a poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote The Song of Hiawatha and he wrote it as Gitche gumee and that spelling kind of just stuck.”
“Oh yeah, now I remember. I heard a song once about the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Gordon Lightfoot sings about the legend handed down from the Chippewa Indians about Gitche gumee and that it never gives up its dead because the water is so cold. Papa also told me that Ojibwe and Chippewa names are the same thing. He said the difference is that the Canadians say Ojibwe and Americans use the name Chippewa.”
“Well, what about the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald?” Hazel asked.
Hank took pride in the ability to educate Hazel a little so he continued, “Papa said it was an Iron Ore ship that sank on the Ontario, Canada side of Lake Superior in mid-November of 1975. It was shipping a load of iron ore to Cleveland, Ohio.”
Hazel corrected Hank, “Cleveland, Ohio isn’t on Lake Superior.”
“I know but all the great lakes are connected. The ship started in Lake Superior then supposed to travel through Lake Huron and into Lake Erie. That is where Cleveland is.”
“Wait a minute” Hazel once again corrected, “Lake Huron and Lake Erie are not connected.”
Hank smiled at Hazel and said “sure they are. The Saint Clair River travels between Canada and the United States. Half of that river is in Canada and half in the United States, and it links Huron with Erie. The Saint Mary’s River links Lake Superior and Lake Huron. So now you have your geography lesson”
“Oh, I didn’t remember that,” Hazel sighed. I do remember though that Papa told me a good way to remember the names of the great lakes. Just think of homes.”
“What do you mean?” Hank asked with a quizzical look.
“HOMES. Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior. HOMES.” Hazel laughed and in deep thought said “There sure is a lot of history on this lake.”
*****
“Hazel, Hank, front and center,” their dad hollered out to them from the cottage. “We’ve got things to do today.”
“Yes sir” they said in unison.
“What were you plotting down there?”
With her left foot slightly in front of her right, hands on her hips, Hazel lowered her head slightly and gazed over the top of her glasses looked her dad straight in the eye. “Well…dad…we were having a scholarly discussion.”
Ethan just smiled and mumbled, “why doesn’t that surprise me.” B. who was standing behind him broke out laughing.