Okay, I’ll be honest. I had the most boring time ever this first day of canoeing. Do you guys sometimes have that feeling that you’ve been doing something for millions of years when you’ve only been doing it for ten minutes because you’re so bored? Sure you do. That’s how I felt that day. I mean, one of the biggest factors that contributed to my boringness was the fact that I didn’t want to be there. I paddled like a baby. Now, I knew I was better than that, but in my mood, I didn’t bother to try it. Already, we were in pretty deep water in the middle of the lake, and all I saw were trees, trees, and more trees. Yeah, there was an island or two as well, but to me, it was just more trees. At least out here I didn’t have to wear my bug net. I just stuffed it under my seat.
Soon after we left the boat landing, I, already tired of the trip, peered back and saw that Uncle Bart was checking the map again. Seriously, he didn’t have to check it every five minutes! We knew where we were going!
Uncle Bart soon looked up, and his eyes landed on a small island not far from us. “What do you know?” he asked, “There’s a campsite on that island.”
I gasped, “Really?!” and I jerked my head in the direction of the island. You can guess what I did next. That’s right... I begged Camp Juniper to camp there instead of on Red Squirrel Lake.
Dad simply yelled, “We’ve only been canoeing for half an hour, Kylie!” at me. You see, that’s what I mean by when I say it feels like it’s been a million years when it’s only been a short amount of time. That’s how bored I was.
I scoffed and mumbled to myself. Another boat whizzed by us, and I waved for it to come back, but it never did. We went over some waves, and I started to sweat. Waves! What if it wasn’t just the boat that created them? After going over the waves, I heard something to the left of me. Turning my head, I noticed that Uncle Clement, Aunt Jessie, and Uncle Macon were passing us.
Uncle Clement called to me, “Hey, Kylie Wylie, have some fun! Grow to like this place!” He was in the stern of the Sawyer, and I noticed that he was dragging his fishing line in the water behind him. Uncle Clement always did this. He always dragged his fishing line behind. I doubted that there were any fish in this park. I was sure the Ghost of Ontario killed them all.
Dad had my Frisbee, and while we canoed, he tossed it back and forth from canoe to canoe. Everybody else was having a blast. I could also hear music. Uncle Clement dragged his fishing line, Dad tossed the Frisbee, and Uncle Macon played music from his iPhone. This was forbidden fun to me. How dare Camp Juniper have fun in my presence when clearly a ghost was on the loose! Dad soon tossed the Frisbee to Uncle Clement, and he caught it. “Yo, Macon, Clement, and Jessie!” he called to the Sawyer, and he pointed at another island further away, “Let’s have a race to that island over there!” The island was teeny. It only had six trees.
Noticing it, Uncle Clement smiled and called, “Oh you are so on, Azul!” He, Aunt Jessie, and Uncle Macon started to paddle as fast as they could towards the island, and Dad, Mom, and Aunt Jessie soon joined them. We watched as they raced. Uncle Bart, Aunt Lydia, and Uncle Harrison cheered the two canoes on. I didn’t cheer. I rolled my eyes. This was nothing but childish behavior. Uncle Clement’s fishing lure bounced in and out of the water like a dolphin as he canoed.
They soon passed Dad, Mom, and Aunt Delia’s canoe, and Uncle Macon called, “So long, Azul!” Since they were in the Sawyer, they of course won the race.
They reached the island of six trees, and Uncle Clement lifted his paddle high over his head, yelling, “We win!” Dad, Mom, and Aunt Delia soon reached them, out of breath, and with the help of a sudden gust of wind, I heard Dad.
“Yeah, we lost. Whew.” They waited for us to catch up, and to kill some time, snapped some photos.
Behind, Uncle Bart asked, “Do you want to try paddling as fast as we can, Kylie Wylie?”
I didn’t speak. I kept my mouth shut.
Uncle Bart sighed.
I’m a lot more fun than this, audience, honest, but there were too many negatives things hopping around in my brain at this time. I still waited for the Ghost of Ontario to jump out and grab us. I listened for “Lucilla.” When we heard it, then that meant that he was nearby. However, I didn’t hear a mysterious sound wash over the lake. I just heard the wind.
Uncle Bart and I paddled towards Uncle Clement, Uncle Macon, Aunt Jessie, Mom, Dad, and Aunt Delia. Uncle Harrison and Aunt Lydia were usually the last ones in line.
I noticed that Dad was in chill mode. Chill mode was when he leaned back in his seat and put his hands behind his head. His paddle rested next to him.
After a bit, I heard it! I knew it would be back! From the sky came the cry of another eagle! Another eagle! What in the name of?! What was with this?! Both Uncle Bart and I peered into the sky, and just as I suspected, circling us overhead was an eagle. Oh no, the stalker eagle was back!
“Whoa!” Uncle Bart yelled, and he laughed, “I bet they didn’t have eagles like that in the United States, Kylie!” He continued to laugh.
I finally decided to speak. I was a mute for the first hour of the trip, but here, I finally said something. “Yeah,” I told Uncle Bart, “I miss the U.S. already.” The hood of my jacket was resting on my head, and I refused to put it down.
“The Oracle speaks!” Uncle Bart said after a bit, and I peered back to him, “What’s up, kid? Is something on your mind?”
“Oh,” I sighed, “I’m just waiting for the Ghost of Ontario to lure us into his trap, Uncle Bart.”
“Don’t worry about it,” said Uncle Bart, “The Canadians were just trying to scare us, Kylie. The Ghost of Ontario is nowhere near as real as you and I.”
I sighed again. After a bit, we reached the small island of six trees, and we waited for Uncle Harrison and Aunt Lydia to catch up.
While we did so, Uncle Clement fished, and he asked Uncle Bart and me, “Are you guys enjoying the trip so far?” He swatted a fly away.
Uncle Bart answered, “I am, but I’m not so sure if the Oracle is.” All eyes landed on me, and scoffing, I crossed my arms.
Since this was the day I met Ihaan the Hermit, this was also the day I found something that belonged to him. At this point in this chapter, fellow audience, Forbidden Fun becomes Girl Discovers Something. In case you’re curious, read or listen on.
Like all girls on long trips, at this stop, I was in desperate need of a bathroom. If I didn’t use it here, then I would’ve wet my pants and also I wouldn’t have discovered what I discovered here. It really was quite something. I turned to Dad and started to impatiently shuffle in my seat. “Dad,” I complained, “I’ve gotta go. If I don’t go here, I’m going to wet my pants.”
Everybody’s eyes landed on me again, and they seemed to stare.
After a bit, Mom nodded and said, “Sure. You can use the restroom, Kylie. We’ll wait for Uncle Harrison and Aunt Lydia. Don’t take too long.”
“Excuse me.” I said. Uncle Bart and I steered our canoe to a small beach on the island, and grabbing my bug net, I put it on and hopped out.
Behind me, Uncle Bart said, “I’ll just wait here!”
I climbed up onto a ledge that led into the six trees and quickly used the restroom behind one and some plants. This was the first time I used the restroom in the wilderness. It was not fun, let me tell you. Now that I was back on shore, the bugs started to bother me again. After I used the restroom, just before I could go back to Uncle Bart, I heard something or at least, I thought I heard something. It was the Ghost of Ontario. He was communicating with me. There was a whistle of wind, and I heard his evil laughter in it. It sounded like the ghost was right on the other side of the island! I just had to check it out! I tiptoed to the other side and stopped at the edge of another ledge that hovered over another small beach. I saw the beach, yeah, but I didn’t see the Ghost of Ontario. However, I did see something else. Down on the beach, I saw a small, brown figure. It just rested on the beach and didn’t move.
My eyes landed on it, and I asked, “What is that?”
Over the wind, I heard the voice of my Uncle Bart, “Kylie, are you finished yet? Uncle Harrison and Aunt Lydia just made it!”
“In just a minute!” I called back, “Give me just a few more minutes, Uncle Bart!”
“Very well! We’ll wait for you!”
“Thank you!” I’m glad he heard me. My eyes landed on the mysterious figure again, and holding my arms out, I jumped down from the ledge and landed on the sandy beach. At least it was sandy and not rocky. If it was a rocky beach, then I don’t think my jump would’ve been as comfortable.
Once on the beach, I jogged towards the figure and said to myself, “If this is a clue that will lead me to Ranger Kate’s son and not the Ghost of Ontario, then perhaps some luck is on my side.” Finally, I reached my discovery and fell to my knees. Carefully, I peered down on it, and my eyes widened. The figure resting on the beach, my discovery, was surprise…a Native American-styled pouch! Yeah you heard me right, it was a Native American-styled pouch. Somebody had lost a pouch on this island. Who though? Well, I already told you.
The pouch was very beautiful, and it definitely was Native American-styled. It was brown all over; at the top of it was a blue, Native American pattern, and in the center of it was a dream catcher-like design. Finally, hanging from the right side of it was a bundle of eagle feathers. The pouch also had brown straps that wrapped around a person’s waist. Basically, it was kind of like a Native American fanny pack, except it was small like a pouch.
This was so weird. Why was there a pouch here? I asked myself this over and over again. While I thought about the mysterious pouch, I picked it up and curiously opened it. I wondered if there was anything inside. There was. Inside the pouch, I found an old, wooden spoon, a small bag of berries, and a beautiful, oval-shaped, green leaf. What was a leaf doing inside it? This just got weirder and weirder. Whoever had owned the leaf had taken very good care of it. There wasn’t a tear at all in it. Strange, why had a leaf been that special? All right, this was cool and all, but who had owned the pouch, and where were they now?
Suddenly, there was another blast of wind, and everything suddenly got cooler. The blast of wind blew the bundle of eagle feathers on the pouch’s side. I gasped. The Ghost of Ontario had drowned the person who owned the pouch. Yelling, I dropped it to the ground and started to run. However, I couldn’t just leave it. It was such a beautiful pouch. Therefore, I returned to it and snatched it up. Then, with the pouch in my hand, I climbed up the ledge and returned to the other side of the island where Uncle Bart was still waiting. I ran so fast that I didn’t see the other ledge in front of me. My foot slipped, and I went tumbling down it.
“Kylie!” Uncle Bart yelled. I landed on the sand on my front with my arms outstretched and groaned. “Kylie!” Uncle Bart yelled again, “Are you okay?!”
Slowly, I lifted my hand and mumbled, “Don’t worry, Uncle Bart. Let’s just get out of here.” I struggled to my feet and trotted over to our canoe.
Uncle Bart took my hand and helped me in, and before long, I was sitting in the canoe again. Uncle Bart noticed the pouch I had and asked, “Kylie, where did you find that pouch?”
“On the other side of the island.” I explained, “It belonged to someone the Ghost of Ontario drowned.” I handed the pouch to Uncle Bart, and he examined it.
“Oh, that’s beautiful,” he admitted, and he picked up a few of the hanging eagle feathers, “Are these eagle feathers?”
I nodded, “I believe so.”
We soon returned to Camp Juniper, and we passed the pouch around. Everybody was taken aback by its beauty. It really was a beautiful pouch. As soon as we made sure everybody had seen it and everybody was together again, we continued on.
After another hour, we stopped for a chocolate break. Chocolate breaks were usually small breaks we took throughout the entire expedition. During them, we would rest our arms, eat some chocolate, and study the maps. Breaks usually lasted fifteen minutes. During our first chocolate break, we each grabbed a canoe so we wouldn’t float away from each other, and Dad passed around the chocolate.
I got myself a piece, but just to my luck, it was melted. Of course. All the bad things happened to me. I had very bad luck the first thirty six hours of the trip. Although, I went ahead and ate the melted chocolate. I was just so hungry. I ate with my hood back over my head. Even after our break, I continued to wear it.
Also, by the time the break was over, we were almost at the first portage. Oh, pickles! The portage! I can rant on and on about how terrible it was. The Ghost of Ontario made sure I didn’t forget about him. On our way to the first portage, he created some waves, and we carefully went over them. My anxiety went up another level. I almost had an anxiety attack. I started to freak out. I knew that by the time we went through the first portage, Camp Juniper would be a step closer to Red Squirrel Lake and the Ghost of Ontario.
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