Home by Shayna Krishnasamy Page B

Though she tried not to show it, the silence left her feeling somewhat hollow. The quiet was most noticeable when they stopped to eat and for a quarter of an hour they shared no talk at all. Then she could tell Liam too sensed something was odd, for he sat close to her and kept turning his head about as though puzzled by their surroundings.
    It was a relief when in early afternoon they took a turn in the path and came upon Minnow Lake. Shallah hadn’t quite realized how close it was, for they were almost upon it before she heard the lapping of the water.
    Minnow Lake wasn’t truly a lake in the traditional sense. Shallah’s father had often dreamed of big waters, and had described the way the sun’s light would reflect on it at sunset, and that the canopy couldn’t cover it, for it was too grand a thing to be closed in like a forest. If such mythic places were to be called lakes, then Minnow Lake was naught but a dim recollection of what a lake had once been.
    It was irregular in shape, with watery fingers running off in several directions. Its body was dotted with islands, small clumps of earth from which the trees grew up, their branches spreading wide so that even over its waters the sky could be seen only in patches. The lake’s waters were clear, exposing the rocky bed and labyrinthine root systems below. Despite its name, and to the disappointment of those daring boys who sought it out, buckets in hand, Minnow Lake held no fish of any kind.
    Shallah was eager to introduce Liam to the lake, to share with him another of her secrets. She hadn’t told him they would be seeing such a sight that day, for she’d hoped to surprise the boy with it. She realized her mistake the moment Liam caught sight of the lake through the trees. She heard him catch his breath, and he faltered in his step. Then he dropped her hand for the first time and ran ahead.
    All her glad anticipation dissolved in an instant and her original fears came rushing back. “Wait for me!” she commanded. She knew the dangers of water. One of Old Brice’s boys had once fallen down the well. She knew if Liam fell into the lake …
    “Don’t fall,” she whispered under her breath as she tore down the path. “Please, don’t fall.”
    She caught him just in time.
    He’d scrambled over the larger rocks which sat all along this side of the shore. One false step and their journey might have come to an abrupt end.
    Shallah clung to Liam with relief. “You frightened me!” she scolded, though she knew he wasn’t to blame. Most likely he’d never seen such a thing as a lake before, and couldn’t know its dangers.
    Liam seemed somewhat bewildered by the intensity of her reaction, and kept glancing over at the lake as though trying to see what all the fuss was about.
    Once she’d recovered from her fright, Shallah took the boy’s hand in hers and leaned forward over the rocks, to show him how cold the water was, and how deep. However, though they leaned far out, their hands met only with dry earth.
    “How strange,” she said. “The water’s retreated.”
    Taking Liam on her hip, she ventured onto the lakebed, treading slowly on the rocky bottom. When at last she felt the cold water lapping at her feet, as she had those years before, she’d come forward nearly thirty feet. Minnow Lake had shrunk to the size of a pond. Its majestic trees stood sentinel over naught but bare rocks.
    Shallah lowered Liam to the ground and crouched down beside him, the hem of her kirtle hanging into the water. Once upon a time she would have been wet up to her waist standing on this very spot.
    “I suppose you had it right,” she said. “There wasn’t any danger after all.”
    She cupped a handful of water and let it trickle through her fingers. Though she tried not to show it, she was heartbroken. All the hope and joy of the morning blew away like so much dust as she sat on the cold lake bottom. Why had this happened now, just when she needed the lake’s comfort