The Lake That Stole Children by Douglas Glenn Clark

Author:Douglas Glenn Clark [Clark, Douglas Glenn]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: A Fable
Published: 2010-07-07T16:00:00+00:00

~ 12 ~

From the bow of his boat, Walter looked at all the other small craft stretched across the surface of Flat Horn Lake.

When Tilly told him what had happened to her father, Walter had gone to his neighbors, who quickly launched their boats.

He also sent a man into town for more help. Now he could see the townspeople approaching the lake through the forest, carrying lanterns that peeked through the trees like swarms of twinkling stars.

Even so, when Walter again looked out over the black, lonely surface of the lake, circles of worry captured his eyes. He turned to face his Claire and Tilly and asked, “Are we too late?”

They didn’t dare answer.

And then a voice cried out.

“Sarah!”

Walter turned and in the distance saw two women lift a little girl from the water and pull her into their boat.

Then the lake erupted with other voices.

“Rhonda!”

“Mickey!”

“We’ve got Mary Beth!”

“There’s Johnny!”

In every direction he looked, Walter saw the faces of lost children, cheeks rosy with joy, bobbing on the surface of the lake. He called to the townsfolk, who were now swarming onto the docks, “The children are free!” he cried. “They have come back to us!”

The townsfolk, swarming the docks, began to cheer and cry and laugh and sing as they launched boats to help gather up the children.

Walter turned to Claire, only to find her crying, her arms stretched outward. In an approaching boat, the tall man saw the very thing he feared he might never see again—his daughter's glowing face.

“Shanna!”

The little girl leapt into her parents’ boat and embraced her parents, who cried and laughed and shouted her name again and again, as though she were newly born.

Tilly was happy for Walter and Claire but worried for her family. She searched the water and other boats but saw no one who resembled Tyler. She fought back tears and wished the strength that had made her bones sing would return. Instead, she felt empty and alone— until a man called, "Whose child is this?" And there was her brother.

“Tyler!”

As Tyler was lifted into Walter’s boat, Tilly could see how cold and frightened he was. His eyes were wide but empty: no rainbows or leaping fish swam in them.

“Where's father?” asked Tilly.

“I don’t know,” he said. “He made the fish explode. But he was stuck.”

Walter and Claire looked closely at the rippling shadows on the lake. The other parents also looked, carefully searching for a floating figure that might be the fisherman. For a moment there was no sound but the lapping of water against small craft.

And Tyler began to cry. Tilly cried, too. Their voices entwined like two storms that had come to replenish the lake with sorrow.

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