Sarah gave a bit of a shiver. She was next to the river, but away enough from where she told were landmines. There was boulder that she sat on. The ice looked like it had refrozen overnight, looked solid. But she didn't trust it. She was terrified of ice.
0o0o0o0o
"Look at me, Mommy!" An eight-year old squealed. She was on her skates.
"Don't skate to close to the middle!" Her mother waved from the side. She was talking to Ben's mother. She made a face. Ben was so dumb. He didn't want to come skating, and besides he had cooties, or that's what her older brother said, and he was in fifth grade and knew everything. She didn't know why her mommy and daddy had decided to come see old Uncle Hawkeye with Grandpa. Oh, she like Great Uncle Hawkeye good enough, but her parents expected her to spend time with the boy. He didn't even want to play catch! He wanted to play football. He was stupid.
The ice broke. She screamed. She fell through. She was too bundled up to move her legs. It was cold, cold, cold. She was trapped underneath the ice. She couldn't get out. She was afraid.
It might on only been thirty seconds, but to her it was a lifetime. A body splashed in the water. It was pulling her towards a spot where it was light. There was Ben's mommy pulling her mother out, lying prostrate on the ice, with about three people behind her.
0o0o0o0o
She had been mildly claustrophobic after that. Not to where it crippled her, but she preferred outdoors after that more than ever, she took the stairs when possible, and had the seats closest to the front in airplanes. She suspected that her love for golf had developed from the open spaces and long walks. Not that she would ever admit to it. She also had become a good swimmer, and became a life guard.
She was out here because she needed time to think, without fifty million people asking her questions about the dance, patients wanting to know whether they'll be discharged, walk or most painfully live. For the latter, luckily they were all yes.
"Found her, Radar!" She turned around. BJ was hiking his way to her. "Hello," he said.
"Hey" She offered back.
"The whole camp is looking for you." He smiled. "Need some down time?"
She smiled sheepishly. "I guess, I'm just not accustomed to having not private space to think. I like to have about five minutes of alone time, and since the camp pace never seems to stop I just needed to get away. I'll get use to it."
He laughed. "Just like Peg. She liked "de-winding" time as she calls it; even when we were on our honeymoon she said we had to stop at a park on the way just so she could relax from the fast pace."
He looked at her in such a way, that Sarah began to laugh, just so he would stop staring at her. It unnerved her, as if he almost thought she was her grandma. He shook it off and laughed with her until his eye fell on her collarbone.
"What's the necklace?" Sarah looked down. It was her Indian necklace, which was from her grandmother. That she had gotten on her honeymoon, when BJ save an Indian's life. He had promised it would keep three generations safe once from danger. It was a carved bear, which in Pueblo the bear meant healing, and medicine.
She pulled it out thinking fast. "They gave it to me on the Indian reservation. Told me it signified who I was. They were right too. Some of the women who were in labor would be suspicious of me, until they saw the bear, because they didn't live in their town. They calmed down after that. I decided to wear in case I mean another Native American."
The word was lost on him. She said hastily. "Indian, I mean. They call themselves Native Americans so I'm so used to saying that."
"Peg has one like it too. In fact if it wasn't for your hair and knowledge of doctoring I'd think you were her in disguise. But I guess yours is too old."
Somehow Sarah found this very ironic. To get off the topic of her necklace, she asked, "Do you miss her an awful lot?"
BJ looked at her sadly. "Only every moment of every minute, every hour and every day. And I miss my daughter, Erin. I haven't shown you her picture have I?"
He pulled out of his pocket, two pictures, one of her grandma, and one of her aunt. Sarah held carefully as if they were worth gold, which she knew they were to him. "They're beautiful, both of them." She said sincerely.
He smiled like any father at the compliment. "C'mon. They'll think I'm having an affair with you if we don't get back soon enough."
And with that, Sarah truly laughed.