Wanda squeaked in alarm.
Eric panicked and overcompensated for the tilt.The weight of his shoulders carried him over; the tip of his paddle caught the water and pulled them over.
Capsized!
She’d seen it coming and had taken a deep breath while they rocked.Newbies always flipped.Too bad flip training wasn’t until after lunch.She wondered whose idea it had been to schedule it after their first trip onto the water.
Bobbing to the surface of the ice-cold water, one hand still on her oar, the other reaching for her hat, she grabbed it, slapped it on, ignoring the water running into her eyes, and reached for the canoe.
Eric popped up, gasping and choking on the water he’d inhaled.
“Are you okay?”
He coughed a few times and nodded.“I will be,” he croaked and coughed some more.
He looked ridiculous; his dark hair was flattened to his head.His cheeks were red from coughing, and he bobbed up and down like a waterlogged cork.She couldn’t help herself.She laughed.
“Not funny.”He scowled.
“It absolutely is.”She stifled a laugh, and dog paddled to the middle of the upturned canoe.“Help me right this thing before it sinks.”
Two quick strokes brought him to the opposite side of the canoe.Thank heaven he could swim.“What now?”
“Grab the gunwale, the top edge, and push it up toward me.Your arms are longer, so you can push it further.It’ll get heavier as you flip, and it takes on water.Push it over.I’ll grab it and pull it down toward me.On three.”
They chanted in unison, “One, two, three!”
With a huge grunt and shove, he lifted the edge out of the water and pushed it toward her.She reached as high as she could.
And just missed as he dropped the heavy weight back down.
“Darn,” she muttered, floundering a bit in the water as a wave swamped her.“One more time.Try to get it another six inches.My arms aren’t as long as yours.”
Four attempts later, the canoe was upright.They hung on opposite edges, laughing, and catching their breath.
“We make a good team,” he panted out the words.
“We wouldn’t need to be a team if you hadn’t flipped us.”She followed her retort with a laugh.
“Good point.”He paused for a breath.“How do we get back in?”
“We don’t.Not this time.I don’t want to risk flipping it again.We’re close enough to shore that we can tow it.We’ll scoop out some of the water and swim back.It isn’t far.”
“I guess flipping practice should have come first.”He used his hat to scoop out some water.She did the same.It was slow, barely effective work.
After removing as much water as they could, they shifted to the bow, and one on each side, towing the canoe, slowly swam toward the shore.
“Oh.I’ve got this.I can touch bottom.”He began pulling both her and the boat at a much faster rate.
“Hold on, I need to get my footing.”She struggled to get her feet on the rocky bottom, even the grips of her water shoes didn’t help against the slippery stones.“Why couldn’t we have sandy bottoms instead of rocks?”As they got closer to the shore, the large rocks became smaller, and her feet slipped around less.
The instructor, Karen, waded out to meet them.“What happened?”She looked amused rather than upset.
“He happened.”Wanda jabbed her thumb toward Eric.
“Hey, no fair!”he grumbled.
“Totally fair,” she countered.“You need to learn to sit still; you nearly capsized us half a dozen times.You have to sit still.”
