PEACE LIKE A LAKE is the First Part of a Horror Story...the kind of Human Story that is so fictional that it seems more real than fiction usually can ever be...it is a short story that builds on the Dark Side of my own 'Force', I suppose...sigh....Part Two will follow as the night follows day....

PEACE LIKE A LAKE: PART ONE


This is actually a horror story. a really horrible story. you just never know who's going to run away with their lives and never really come back to live among us ordinary people. you just never know. it's not always who you think it's going to be: hard to tell...

When she was a kid, Dad took them all to lakes for vacations...he was happiest on still-water fishing...fishing was his thing. then golf. his two daughters were not sons. so he tried to make them sons. his oldest daughter loved her Daddy. she'd go fishing with him. she tried to play golf. but she had a terrible right hook. due to some congenital defect: no depth perception on the right. the youngest of the two was a tomboy. but she and their dad didn't get along much at all. it was too bad - since she could have been a good fisherman and played golf too. but she didn't: because they just didn't get along. there are just patterns that happen in every life that just don't change as they should or even could. so they grew up very differently... tho they were only two years apart in age.

The older girl, who was Rae Anne, went fishing more and more with their Dad and the younger girl, Ronnie June went less and less into the boat. then Rae Anne went out more and more with other kids who went fishing or out in boats on the lake. and Ronnie June was left behind. finally, Rae Anne went out with her dates onto the lake and then one of those guys became a fiancee and then a husband and then they had children...so on and on....but more happened because of Ronnie June still being with the family all the time. on the lake.

The lake was the source of everything, really. all the happiness and unhappiness of the family centered on the lake. the golf course was next to the lake. Mom and Dad were out there every morning for the early tee-offs. then they were out in the boat. five miles an hour out onto the lake. once. twice a day. fishing. every body was out there fishing. Rae Anne, as I said...then her friends, her own family. the lake was the lodestone of vacations. but it was also the metaphor of the spirit of the whole family: both Mom's and Dad's family - and then Rae Anne's family. only Ronnie June was left out of the loop. they were all grown up now, and she was still feeling out of the metaphor. and she was starting to hate the lake.. really.

The lake was smaller than when they had been children for one thing. another was that Ronnie June was lonely. she didn't have friends at the lake ever. she didn't have her own family to bring to the lake. she was OK about Mom - but not too hot about Dad. she didn't like to take the boat out...not at all. she swam in the lake. but not with the others. all in all not good for the family. and not that great for her either. she had a time when was anorexic. then bulimic. pretty pathetic stuff. and so thin. with bad teeth and all. ulcers. hospitals. very silent person. didn't match the family. she was nothing to joke about... that's for sure.

Rae Anne was the complete opposite. full of life - her little kids and her charming husband as well. prince charming for sure. they were just night and day: and Ronnie June got to hear about that just forever. she started to drink. she would take the boat out now. sit under willows overhanging the lake. drink. pee over the side of the boat like their dad had taught them to do as kids... but she was a woman now - tho she was a stick of a woman. it wasn't right: every one felt sorry for her. and for the family. having to support a grown woman - on account of she had flunked out of every school since high school. and never had held down one single job. and had not one friend - unless they were a drifter. or a loser like her.

you might be thinking I'm pretty hard on her. couldn't be that bad. but I only knew half of it... later on, after she was dead. (bet you saw that one coming. but hold on. not there yet), Rae Anne let on and let out lots and lots of stories that would literally make your hair curl. about Ronnie sleep-walking with knives. cutting herself in the tub more than once. taking sleeping pills to try to die. taking Aspirin to try to die. going after her own father with his own gun. which was not loaded - thank god. that family had been through too much with that daughter-number-two. I'm just saying... they tried to get her to go for help. had her under observation a couple of times. but they always sent her home... and the family had her only home....

It got so no one wanted her up at the lake. not a soul. and the family needed some time away from all her horrible dramas and sullen ways. so they'd leave her to 'house-sit' back home. go up to the lake without her. things were better for awhile. then the you-know-what hit the fan:

It was August. hot, hot, hot. heavy with rain. heavy with wet. muggy, muggy wet. no breezes on the lake even. still. still as a graveyard in snow. she was with them this time. on account of there was no air conditioning in the house: it had given-out in over-use on these dog-days. they were afraid she'd go crazy and burn the place down from the heat. so every one was sullen now. not just her. no body even talked except for needing something. every one just lay around panting like old dogs in the sun. finally evenings would come. it would cool a little. out into or on to the lake every one went. and didn't come off the lake until night when the fireflies were lighting the way home.

Rae Anne's kids were whining about the heat. her husband wasn't trying to cheer anybody up for a change. Dad was looking peaked. Mom was banging around pots and pans. complaining that no one was eating anything anyway. so why was she getting herself all hot and hotter cooking in the damn kitchen? good question... Ronnie June was sitting on the sleeping porch. staring into nothing through the screens. in the dank shade of the old trees. Dad decided to go out onto the lake of course. his answer to everything... for some ungodly reason. he told Ronnie June to come with him. no one to this day knows why. and why she just stood up and went. usually she would have just said no. not even no thanks... but she just got up and went. no one said a word of protest or surprise...

Dad pumped up the old bitsy engine. Ronnie June sat in the bow. sullen. quiet. Dad didn't talk either. neither shouted a goodbye or anything. they just went off.

The kind of bad ending you expect came:it got near evening. they didn't come back. then it was getting dark. Rae Anne's husband went out in the canoe to look for them. he came back shouting and all grim. he had found the boat. upside down in the still lake. not a sign of them anywhere.

they were both good swimmers. there was nothing wrong with the boat. there had been no flares - and there were flares: in floating packets. so they could have set one off... and where were they anyway? not a body in sight. alive. or dead.

divers went in that very night. and the next morning. the sweeper boats went out and dredged the whole lake where they could reach. nothing: not a piece of cloth. not a fishing pole. nothing. investigations and searches went on for months. it was a really horrible mystery: no one knew what to think. what to say. a whole year went by....

The family was no good at this: they were meant for being ordinary. and usually happy. except for all the Ronnie June business, which had plagued them so - for so many years. it was a terrible relief not to have her around. but no one would say that out loud, of course. Dad was another story. he and the lake were the cornerstones of their lives. without him, and without the lake: nothing to hold. nothing to hold them together.

Rae Anne and her husband divorced. he couldn't take the stress of her endless misery. he got custody of their kids. they would visit with her on weekends. over time they saw her less. it was hard for her to cope with them, even that couple of days a week. Mom got just about catatonic. she had to go to a nursing home: a facility for mental illness. she just wasn't functioning one whit..even the lake got empty. people were a lot spooked by the whole incident. the lake silted over quite a bit. which actually made better fishing - for some reason... so men came to fish there from the shore line. did pretty well....

I think about twenty years went by: then some unusual events happened. brought the whole mystery up into the light again. like from the bottom of the lake - but not that gruesome...

Some one who went to the city about fifty miles away: saw Ronnie June. or thought they saw her. gray hair - but otherwise looked a lot like her. with a family of older kids. nice-looking husband. walking down the street... on impluse, called out Ronnie June's name: the woman turned and looked at her: she thought the woman looked shocked and surprised and scared - all at once... then she turned and walked away down the street... there was much speculation about this sighting: then it died down....

Then some one else said they saw her just about thirty miles away at the County Fair -:in the Preserving Building. competing in the Jams and Jellies section of the stalls. said her name: same thing in reply. but this time he was bold. he went up and spoke: your family fell apart. you must know that. where did you go? what happened? the woman just spoke back grim. almost angry: none of your business - and then left the building quickly....

Now the whole town was into this. especially Rae Anne. she wanted to know for sure: if this was her sister. what had happened so long ago. and especially what had happened to Dad. where was he? the police were brought back in. the investigation began again.

naturally, it was Ronnie June. the story took a lot longer to find out tho. and to get confirmed. to settle every body down. somehow. some way...

According to Ronnie June. Dad had tried to kill her. he had hit her lots of times over the head with the boat oar. on board in case the engine failed. she had tried to defend herself. threw stuff at him. hit him back. but he kept on coming. he kept calling her The Bad Seed and worse...