yessiecan

     "I got it! The snake! I got it!" Mickey was shouting as he ran towards me, zigzagging through clusters of kids eating their lunches. This might sound like a simple task, unless you have ever seen 200 summer Camp kids running around, throwing food, and generally being immature during lunch. But, he made it through. "This is gonna be great! It's gonna work and it's gonna be great, Dave!" Mickey was my best friend. We had been coming to Camp Yessiecan together for 4 years now. We had been campers there, and now we were Counselors In Training. Basically being a Counselor In Training, or CIT as we said, means that our parents got a break on the weekly fee of having us come here, and we were supposed to take care of little kids and be responsible and stuff. Well, that's how it's supposed to work anyway.
    "What are you talking about?" I asked him getting excited as if I already shared his secret.
    "I know what we can do with that snake you took from Danny," he burst as he ran into me, unable to stop his momentum from his sprint across the gauntlet lunch field. "I'm gonna scare Carly with it; let me see it!" All the way into his second year of high school he still thought he could get girls to like him by making them scream and say they hate him.
    "You can't have it that, it's not mine!" Little Danny Compland brought a toy snake to Camp today and used it to scare the girls in his group. Nine 7 year old girls running around screeching, "I'm going to kill Danny if he doesn't get rid of that thing!" is not a good way to start the day. So I had taken it away. "I'm going to hold onto it for him until his mother comes to get it from Camp," I told him. "It's not mine to give you."
    "Yea, but listen to me: I'll bring it right back I promise," he continued. "I'm going to use it to scare Carly! It's gonna be great. C'mon man!" His eyes danced from me to the group of kids near me to Carly and Lisa sitting together near the other group of the kids whose Counselor they were helping, and then they zipped back to me. "Hey, I won't scare Lisa if that's what you're afraid of. I won't ruin your chances - I know you like her."
    "I don't like her. I just think she's nice."
    "And, she's cute."
    "Yea."
    "And, she likes you so I won't scare her. Just Carly - I swear!"
    "No she doesn't," I said as I handed him the snake. "But, don't tell Danny!"
    "Oh man, you better watch this. It's gonna be great!" he said as he turned and ran through a small cluster of kids. "Thanks Danny!" he yelled, waving the plastic tool of excitement as he ran by. He ran toward the girls, but they were away from their group and were walking towards a trail in the woods. He stuffed the snake into the waist of his swishy pants as he ran. As I packed into a paper bag the remnants of my lunch - a half eaten ham and cheese sandwich in a plastic baggy, a granola bar wrapper, the cores of an apple and a plum, and the popsicle stick of a Rocket Blast from the ice cream truck - Danny Compland poked me in the arm.
     "Dave! How come you let Mickey have my snake!?" I looked at him, and made a face with crossed eyes, snarled lips and cocked head. Then walked away from him toward the garbage pale. He trailed next to me, still poking entirely to regularly. "Hey, how come, huh? Hey, wait, don't throw that out! What's the joke?"
     I stopped as I was about to drop the ice cream stick into the trash. I considered the sticky popsicle left over, thinking about my own enjoyment of its silly jokes that were printed under these ice cream treats.
"You really want it?" I asked him.
     "Give it to me," he answered.
     So, I handed him the stick and he read, "'Where do you find a turtle with no legs?'"
     "I don't know," I lied. "Where?"
     "'Where ever you left it! Hahaha, that's funny!" His laughter made me think he would have made a good Little Rascal.
     "Aren't you signed up for boating?"
     "Yea, why?" he fenced.
     "Come on. I'm working with Darcy this period." But, he still hesitated. "We're gonna go searching for the Crab."
     "Really? Can I come with you?" He asked. "Can I sit in the front? Can I row?" He may have continued on like this, but I had stopped listening. The important thing was that he was coming with me.

     I lead Danny over towards the boathouse where Darcy, the Boating Director, was getting the life preservers untangled from the mess that the last group before lunch had left. I told Danny to sit at the picnic table with about a dozen other waiting adolescent boaters and went into the boathouse. "Hey Darcy! How's it going?"
     "Good, Dave, how are you?" she asked. "Are you gonna take some kids out?"
     "Yea I'm gonna take Danny and some others out to see the Crab."
     "Would you mind taking a rowboat? I don't want them going into that cove in a canoe. And, be careful!"
     I didn't like the rowboats. They were old, rackety, and hard to row. I preferred the canoes, and Darcy knew this. But, that's what she wanted and she was the Boating Director....
     "Yea, that's fine," I said as I grabbed three life preservers. I would borrow Darcy's spare life jacket for myself. It was much better than the life preservers the kids would be wearing. She usually only would let counselors wear it, but she made an exception for me even though I was CIT. This was because I helped her all the time. I was usually liked and trusted by directors and counselors. I had earned it. To me, it was just part of Camp Yessiecan: Help out, it'll be fun.
     I went over to stand in front of the waiting rowboat. I stood facing the children, all slouched on the picnic table, with one obnoxiously orange colored life preserver around my neck, and one around each shoulder, and my hands on my hips. "Ok! Who wants to go Crab hunting?" I asked loudly.
     Then, all of a sudden a blur of hair and giggles came whooshing by me as one girl, an older girl of about 8 and big for her age, came hiding behind me as a much smaller 6 year old girl chased her. In the whir of the moment I was not able to immediately react and soon the girls were chasing each other in circles around me at a dizzying pace. So, I counted to myself slowly, "Three...two...one..."and then flung my arms straight in the air like I was imitating a rocket blast off and I screamed, "Freeze!" Both girls froze in their tracks staring at me, dumbfounded. I abruptly dropped my arms and flung a life preserver around their each of their necks adding, "Let's get ready," to make their mission clear. I then positioned myself on the bow of the rowboat as the two girls giggled at each other.
     Then came a small boy, about 6 years old in wet red bathing trunks and the blue colored polo shirt that his mommy had surely put on him this morning. But, it had come out a little different in his redressing after swimming lessons. It was now inside out with an upturned collar, giving him the appearance of a post-toddler interpretation of James Dean. "Hi Billy! Do you want to go try and see the Crab?" He only looked at me in response, leaning on his feet so that he stood on the outer edges of his dark green water shoes with his toes shyly curled in. "Ok, put this on and then come to the boat," I said handing him a life preserver.
     "C'mon now," I coaxed to get him to into the boat. He climbed over the side and then, crouched low in the half floating boat as he sat in the narrow seat at the front. He sat facing me as I was sitting on the bow with one foot over either side, steadying the vessel. "Ok you guys," I called over my shoulder to the two girls. First came the littler one, whom we called Beana. She crept past me, stepping from the sandy beach into the boat without getting her tiny, pink painted toenails wet. As she got in she crouched to hold on, with one hand for each side of the boat as she stepped over the rower's seat. Then came Jen, the larger girl. At nearly twice the other girl's size, she came splashing into the edge of the water and sloshed one foot into the boat, getting my seat all wet. Then, with outspread arms like a dizzy ballerina she effectively stepped over both my seat and Beana in her rush to get into her seat. She was blabbing about wanting to row or something like that. I don't know exactly what she was saying because I didn't let her finish...
     "Hey!" I shouted, louder and more harshly than I intended. "You know the rules of the boat. You don't get into or move in the boat unless I tell you! And never stand up in the boat. Good thing Darcy didn't see you! She probably wouldn't let you go boating!!"
     She sat down, teary eyed with all of the exaggerated emotional sensitivity of a soon-to-be teeniebopper.
     I looked up and saw Darcy watching. She gave me a wink.
     I went on as if nothing had happened. No need to be angry. I never got angry with the kids, sometimes they just had to be reminded who was in charge.
     Then I heard Danny calling me.
     "Dave! Dave, don't forget you said I could go too!"
     "Ok, I can fit all four of you. Go get your life jacket."
     He ran off kicking up gobs of wet sand onto my shorts, shirt, and life preserver. He returned as quickly as he had left with his life preserver already fastened around his waist and climbed into the boat.
     With Danny planted safely next to Billy, I dragged the boat into the water a few feet so that it floated well and climbed into the rower's seat, positioning myself to propel the heavily loaded rowboat. As the voyage began I had Danny sitting in front me of me, facing me. Billy had his back to me now still facing the bow, leaning over from time to time to look down at the rushing water as it parted around us. The girls both behind me facing my back. Oh boy - this was going to be one long boating period!

     Danny was now getting to be quite a pest! He kept tapping me on the knee to ask questions. I didn't mind right away, but it got tiresome. Things like: "What's that green thing?""Was that a fish?""Are we gonna go all the way across the pond?""How far is it, do you think?""How about in inches?"
     He was only rivaled by the two girls behind me speculating of who they thought I had romantic interest in - who I "liked" in their vocabulary.
     "I think he likes Carly cuz of her pink hair," said Beana so that I could hear.
     "No, he likes Lisa! I heard him telling Mickey that he put his arm around her at the movies last night."
Being analyzed by preteenage girls was painful. I may think twice before taking a boat full of ankle biters onto the pond again.
     Then Danny piped up again: "Is the 150 pound Crab real?"
     Ah!! That was t he question I had been waiting for! "Well, yes of course it is. Haven't you ever seen it?"
     "No way! John Spiliotopplemouse said that wasn't real. He says that your just full of bologna," said Jen, quoting her counselor.
     "You don't believe in the 150 pound Crab? What about you?" I gasped in mock surprise to the curiously turned head of Billy, listening in for the first time. I let his shaking head and the naysays of Beana and Danny hang in the air for a moment. "Well, haven't you ever seen the dead boats?" More shaking heads, but I had their attention now. "Well, that's why you don't believe! The Crab knocked the bottom right out of the boats. And they're STILL there! I'll take you to see one..."
     So, I went on telling the stories of the 150 pound Crab. I had to be sure to say things like, "We don't know if the people in the boats got away or not, but they probably did," and "No, he can't get us in these boats. The bottoms are metal. He only gets the wooden ones." Blood and gore were never a good idea in kiddy stories. But, even with these Parentally Correct guidelines, I was able to tell the story with ease. Occasionally, I would go along with a confused comment like "Yea, I saw about the Crab in the New Jersey Times! My father showed it to me!" and "Yea, and I talked to the reporter from NewsMonth magazine that came to Camp last year!"
     It took quite a while to get out to where the dead boat was. It was almost directly across the pond from the boathouse. This distance gave me time, often too much time, to go into detail about the crab. There were many variations to the story, but I kept some details consistent so as to keep credibility: The Crab was probably sleeping in the middle of the pond, at the bottom, all day. He would only come up to the surface at sunset and sunrise to feed, just like the fish. He wouldn't go anywhere near the swimming area (boy, that would be a disaster: Two hundred kids refusing to go swimming for fear of a 150 pound Crab!!). The Crab had knocked the bottom out of two boats, one of which had been lost. I could still show the other one. It was in a shallow part of a cove across the pond from the boathouse.
     I kept these things so consistent that no camper ever doubted the existence of the crab. I even got an occasional Counselor or two to believe!
     We were in the cove that held the one visible dead boat. Boaters of any age made me nervous here. They always became at least a little bit tense, so I always feared the risk that they could injure themselves somehow. In a canoe, the ever present danger was flipping. It was safer in the rowboat, but I was still on edge.
     "I don't see it." said Jen, the first to break the silence.
     "Just a little further," I whispered to increase the drama.
     Billy was becoming visibly nervous. "Oh, I don't want to see it. Let's go back. I don't want to see it anymore."
     For a few moments, I ignored the bickering between the older girl and younger boy about his being a baby. I stopped rowing, letting the boat glide, putting down one oar, then the other so that I could give the crybabies a perfect view of this sunken oddity.
     "There it is," I announced.
     "Where?" squeaked Beana.
     I pointed to it with an oar. I made a point of showing the large hole that had been knocked out of the bottom. Anyone who didn't think it was really a boat, was soon quieted. It was very clear. The sun was hitting the water just right to make it fully visible.
     "Wow! The crab did that???"
     "Aaaaggh!"
     "It's real!"
     "There really is a crab! Wait till I tell Spiliotopplemouse!"
     Yep, I had won them over again. Now, I had just had to row my way back. They would ask a lot of questions now. Many of which I would field with creativity, many of which I left unanswered. They barely noticed any of my answers anyway because they were all so excited and talking among themselves.

     Back at the beach, I yelled, "Ramming speed!" and made a final, dramatic push as we hit sand. The slight jolt of hitting land mixed with the laughter at my theatrics slowed them down enough that I was able to make sure they exited the boat slowly and safely. They were all in a hurry to tell their friends and counselors about the Crab that was a thousand and fifty pounds, and could take the bottoms right out of ocean liners. It was great - they did all the glorifying for me.
     As they scampered off I began packing up the boating area. I was the last boat in, and all the other CITs had already taken off. Now, all the oars had to be put in the boat house, then the boat house had to be made neat, and the boats dragged ashore and locked.
     I noticed Darcy walking slowly toward me. This was odd, because normally she would have had half the cleaning done by now.
     "Could you finish picking up for me?" She made it sound as if she had started!! "I think I re-injured my back, and I think I should have it looked at. I'm gonna take off now."
     "That's no problem. I'll find someone to help."
     "Oh, thanks!" Now, she acted as if she wasn't expecting me to do it for her! "Here are the keys. Make sure the boats are locked. I'm gonna get out of here." Then, turning back as she walked away, "Oh, have fun on the sleep over. I'll see you tomorrow."
     I was startled as I heard this. I had totally forgotten: Today was Thursday, sleepover night!! And, this was a CIT-only sleepover. These were unique experiences. It was time to have fun being outdoors and spending time with the other CITs. Of course, PJ, our CIT Director, was a very capable counselor. But, he was the only supervision generally present at these overnights. He had spent a couple of years in the army. He was an E4, which meant he was a step below a Drill Sergeant. But, we were all sure he could have been a Drill Sergeant and we all avoided getting on his bad side. For the most part though, there was a total freedom from authority. It was great!
     Since I wouldn't have to take the bus home as I normally did, there was no hurry cleaning up. The kids would all be finding their groups and counselors to get ready to leave, and then there was a period of free time for the CITs. Sometimes there were planned activities, but usually we preferred to just hang out until dinner.
     I went about cleaning up in a relaxed, dutiful manner. After a while, I heard someone coming up behind me. It was Mickey.
     "Hey, what happened? Did you scare Carly?"
     "No, it didn't work."
     "Why not? What happened?"
     "Well, I hid the snake behind a tree and told her to come look at something. Lisa came with her. I made like I was bending over to point at something near the tree, then I grabbed it and threw it at her and screamed as loud as I could."
     "Well, what happened??"
     "Well, I missed and it hit Lisa instead. She screamed really loud and got so scared she cried a little. I'm really sorry, man." he pleaded. "She won't be mad at you though - why would she be?"
     "What the heck?! You specifically promised you wouldn't scare her and now she's going to be mad because you did," his expression hardened as he retreated a step.
     "Hey, I'm sorry man. Take it easy! Hey, do you need help cleaning this place up?"
He turned away from me to emphasize his changing of the subject and started on the task of pulling in the boats. He was a bit bigger than me, and a little on the chubby side. He was into the martial arts, and was surely the stronger of the two of us. Even as he pulled rowboats from the mud to the sand, he seemed to be aware of how he looked. He was admittedly very vain.
     I started working too, slamming everything I handled down to emphasize my annoyance. Even so, we had the place perfect in a matter of 10 minutes.
     I was now pulling the chain through the front loop on each boat, preparing to lock them up.
     "Darcy left the key with you?" inquired Mickey with a bit of exaggerated surprise.
     "Yea, she wanted everything locked up"
     "Yea, so? Tonight is the sleep over. You know what that means!"
     "PJ would kill us!" He couldn't be thinking what I thought he was thinking!
     "That means we'll be hear at sunset." I grimaced as I realized he was. "That means we can find out of if that ridiculous 150 pound Crab really exists."
     "He does exist," I asserted. "Why would we have to find out?"
     He didn't even consider that I could really think like that, and there was no sign that be believed my pretended disinterest at all.
     "We'll do it at a time when PJ is out of the site." he said. "Besides, he wouldn't really kills us even if he did find out, which he won't."
     "I'm not so sure," I hedged, but I left one canoe unlocked anyway. I locked everything except that canoe, but put it between two rowboats. With all the boats standing on one long side and leaning against each other, you couldn't really see the canoe. It was hidden in a rowboat sandwich. But, all we would have to do to get it out is lean one rowboat away from it, and pull the canoe out on the quiet sand. It was safe there until this evening.

     Dinner that night was exciting. All of the CITs running around, throwing food, and generally being immature. PJ had to spend all his time trying to keep us from hurting ourselves. Then, as the sun was setting into the top of the western trees and most of us were done eating he called us all to gather round.
     "Ok, boys and girls," he began with the tone of bored, patronizing authority. "It's time for all of you to go pitch your tents and put your sleeping bags and little teddy bears safely inside," he mocked. "Do you all think you can handle that?" He didn't wait for a response. "Do it quickly. It shouldn't take you more than 10 minutes." We all knew we'd drag it into 40 minutes, at least. "Then come on back down here to the field. I'll leave the basketballs out for you and you know where I'll be if you need anything." Yep, we did. He'd be somewhere around the equipment shack with his girlfriend. "Get to it." He added to break up the herd.
     "We don't need a tent," Mickey whispered to me. "We can sleep under the stars in our sleeping bags. Let's get the girls and go out on the pond."
     He was right, sleeping under the stars would probably be better anyway. "But, we've only got a few minutes," I complained.
     "No way, even if PJ noticed we weren't around the basketball court, which he wouldn't, he'd assume we were at the campsite still. We've got at least an hour till it gets really dark and he does a flashlight role call."
     "I don't know..." I whined.
     "Oh, shut up. Let's go!" he prodded and then went over and began whispering to Carly, who then whispered to Lisa. Then, as all the other campers meandered into the woods toward the campsite, we lagged behind. We had to make ourselves look busy, so I picked up Mickey's overnight bag, quickly unzipped it and summarily dumped all of its contents on the ground.
     "Hey, what'd you do that for?" he whined.
     "Oh, shut up," I volleyed. "Here, we'll pick it up for you," I said, grinning as Carly pointed at his pair of red and white striped boxer shorts, that was unceremoniously jumbled with his tooth brush, some spare clothes, and a picture book about Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love. After we clumsily packed most of the stuff back into the pack, we stealthily made our way to the boating shack. We all understood the importance of secrecy - if we got caught we would be in more trouble than any of us had ever been in! PJ would probably call our parents and send us home, perhaps kicking us out of Camp! He might even call the police and accuse us of stealing Camp property, just to see if we could handle prison life.
     It's not that we would never tell anybody. We had already told Chuck. Chuck had been at the Camp about as long as we had. He was going to be our look out man. He was going to let us know when we had 20 minutes till PJ's flash light roll call.
     And, besides, we couldn't not tell anyone! This was going to be a rare sort of adventure. This would be the sort of thing that would be passed down through generations of CITs until we ourselves were parents of such creatures and seemed impossibly far removed from such behavior. This was the sort of thing they made movies about and that caused huge life altering changes. We were going on the pond at sunset to find the Camp Yessiecan Crab!

     We had gotten the boat and paddles out with only one incident: Mickey jumped away and made two boats crash together after seeing a spider. We all froze completely, listening for signs that someone had heard us. There were none.
     "Good job, hero!" I prodded in a whisper.
     He didn't answer. He wasn't especially arachnophobic, but the idea of the conspiracy we were undertaking had made us very tense. Hopefully the girls would not pick up on this.
     He pushed the boat into the water so that it was just barely afloat. Carly and Lisa were waiting for us standing with their feet in the water and tugging at their life preservers as they whispered back and forth as the stood awkwardly in their crossing-guard-orange life preservers. For some reason, the girls had not taken the better, more comfortable life jackets. Perhaps this oversight was a sign that they were as nervous as we were.
     I was standing by our life preservers as I took my shoes off. Mickey, came over toward me to put his shoes out of the way. I consciously didn't pick up the life jackets, but looked at him wondering if he would. He did.
     "Think we'll need these?" He asked wearily. We both knew we wouldn't need them, and chances are no one would ever know we were even on the boats let alone on the boats without life preservers. However, wearing those life jacket was the first rule of boating, and I don't think either of us wanted to take the chance of breaking that cardinal rule on this night.
     "Well, why not?" I asked.
     "Because we won't need them for anything, and we can't get in trouble for it because no one will ever know about this."
     "But, what if they do find out and we do get in trouble? Or, what if we do need them?"
     "We won't get in trouble. And, we won't need them either. Really!" He paused, considering me, then added, "I swear!"
     "Let's just keep them in the boat anyway," I conceded.
     "Fine."
     We approached the boat, and the waiting girls. Mickey waded out to the front of the boat, and put his life jacket under his paddling seat.
     "You're not gonna wear that?" asked Carly nervously.
     "You won't be needing this." he said, reaching around her to take off her life-preserver. "Why don't you use it to sit on."
     She didn't protest, so he put it down behind his paddling seat. I put Lisa's life preserver down in front of my seat. There were no seats for the ladies. It may not have been very gentlemanly like, but that is how it always was when we had a canoe: I paddled in the back, and Mickey in front. There were only seats in those two places, and we always took them - no matter who was with us.
     I was the first to sit in the boat. I put a leg over each side of the boat to the ground, so as to steady it for everyone else. Mick helped Lisa into her seat, and then sat to help Carly into hers, right behind his own. I brought my feet in, and shoved off.

     We were afloat. I shivered once violently. The cold of the metal on the bottom of the boat, the peace of floating on the water, and my jittery nerves from breaking this many rules in one night was having its effect on me.
     Mickey looked back at me as if to say "You all right?"
     I nodded as if he had actually asked the question.
     We paddled silently for a while, towards the first dead boat.
     "You guys aren't going to try to make us believe that stupid Crab story, are you?" asked Carly to break the silence.
     "It's real!" Mickey insisted as he turned to poke her playfully in the shoulder. He was used to my story, and had often helped me tell it. But, he wasn't much for the content of the story. He was the color guy.
     "Come on, you guys! None of that scary stuff." protested Lisa.
     "Come on, Lisa. What do you think? That it's true or something?" said Carly.
     I put a hand on Lisa's shoulder, but laughed to myself. "Well, you guys like little animals, don't you? Last time Mick and I came out here after sunset, we saw the beaver come out in the far cove. He jumps up out of the water and everything!"
     "The beaver? Aww. Their so cute. Let's go see it." said Carly. "Start paddling Mickey, you weakling!"
     "In the far cove?" asked Lisa plaintively. "Isn't that where the dead boat is? I've heard you guys talk about it. I don't wanna go out there. Let's go back. We should get back."
     Oh, boy here we go: "You're such a baby Lisa!" scowled Carly.
     Mickey chuckled audibly arrogantly.
     Lisa didn't answer. But, that made me determined to scare Carly. I could hardly hold in my laughter at the thought of her, soon to be the one who was afraid. We paddled in the direction of the far cove again, faster now.
     Lisa turned and looked at me like a small child being urged to see a far too big and overbearing, obnoxious clown at a fairground. I looked at her reassuringly. She calmed slightly, and faced front again.

     We got out to the cove at just the right time. I saw the beaver's head slowly streaking across the surface water, off to our left. I looked at Mickey. I thought he had seen it too, and not let on. He started paddling as if he wanted the boat turned to the right, so I turned it.
     "Let's check out the dead boat. I want to see if Tough Girl here has any idea what could have put a hole like that in a boat, other than 150 pound Crab." said Mick, referring to Carly. Now, I wondered if he had seen the beaver.
     As I paddled us there, Mickey bragged about how many campers had been scared of the boat and the story. And, how even Jenee, our International counselor from Australia, had been scared and talked about how the Aborigines back home told stories of a giant, man eating crab that lived over their nation-continent before it emerged from the sea. He was doing a good job of selling the drama.
     "On your right," I directed Mick.
     He pointed down with his paddle. Carly looked with a gaping mouth, but silently. I was in the process of turning the boat so that Lisa and I could also see it. I had to keep a hand on her back to keep her from leaning over to far, when there was a huge splash behind us.
     "What the....?" exclaimed Mickey as he turned to look.
     Carly and Lisa also turned quickly, throwing all their weight to one side. I was just barely able to keep my weight balanced, but Mickey who was not as used to the canoe as me, over compensated, sending us back the other way. I lost my grip on the paddle and it slid in my hands. With the tilt of the boat, came the weight of the girls.
     "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahh!" one of them screamed.
     I grabbed the paddle as hard as I could, and felt my skin begin to stretch as the paddle hit the bottom. I pushed up with all the strength I could muster, and slowly felt the boat even back out, and then balance. Whew. That was too close.
     "Oh my god!" "What was that?" exclaimed Carly and Lisa at the same time.
     "What was that?!?" Carly took Lisa's question. "Ain't no beaver can do that!"
     Mickey glared at me. We had seen the beaver jump and then disappear like that before, but it was the closeness to flipping the canoe that had bothered us both. But, we couldn't let this go. "What else could it be?" I asked rhetorically.
     "I thought it was the beaver." added Mickey.
     "Get me out of this boat now!" growled Carly frantically. "I want out right now. I don't care where, just let me out."
     There was a small area of sand nearby, between this coves and another. I suggested that we could rest there, but not for long because we had to get back soon.
     We paddled quietly to that small beach. The girls kept looking over their shoulder, to the spot where the huge splash had come from. I purposely didn't follow their gaze because I didn't want to get them too scared. Mickey, though, he didn't care. He kept looking, jerking his head around quickly as if something was going to attack us from behind. Every time he turned, the girls turned. By the time they looked back to him, he was facing front again. He must have done it 5 times. I thought for sure I would burst out laughing.
     Then, we hit sand. Mickey stepped out and pulled the boat up for the ladies to get out. They all got out of the boat. I just stretched my legs out, and laid back in the boat.
     "So, what do you guys think that was?" asked Lisa, who stood, quietly shaking about 5 feet from the water. Carly had sat even further away than that and brought her knees to her chest and her head in her knees.
     "Uh, I think it was the Crab," said Mickey who was standing next to the boat with the bottom of his Vans teasing the waterline.
     I contained my laughter once again. One giggle would blow the whole story. "Well, it had to be the beaver, right? I mean: What else it could be??"
     "Well, you guys tell that Crab story all the time and...." Lisa didn't finish her thought.
     "And, this is around sundown, feeding time for the fish," Mickey finished it for her. "When I turned, those ripples weren't all that far from the boat."
     "But, isn't that Crab story just something you made up???"
     "No! I didn't make it up." I exclaimed! "Darcy told me about it at the beginning of the summer. I think she had heard it from Skip. Skip does know all about the camp's history. I mean, he's been the Camp Director since forever! But, Darcy never seemed really worried about it. Well...not usually"
     "What do you mean not usually??" asked Carly excitedly.
     "Well, one time, it was kinda foggy, and Darcy wouldn't let me take the morning kids out. She said it was 'Too dark. Too much like sunrise.' I never thought anything of it. But...."
     "But, Darcy doesn't joke like that" pointed out Mickey.
     Silence. No one wanted to say anything else.
     "Ssoooooooeeeeeeey!"
     Mickey laughed. That was Chuck's signal! Everyone else would just think he was being obnoxious, but we all recognized it as our warning. We only had about 20 minutes, if we were lucky, until PJ started would come looking for us.
     I sat up. "We have to go."
     "I'm not getting back in that boat." said Carly very matter of factly.
     "Come on toughy!" prodded Mickey. "What? Are you scared of a 150 pound Crab? Just listen to it: One hundred and fifty pound crab! Sounds like a fairy tale to me. Yea, ok: There might me a 150 pound crab in this pond....if there is also a great white shark in my bathtub and men on Mars!!"
     By this time Lisa was already sitting in front of me, waiting. Carly got into her seat, but gave Mickey a good smack in the head as she did so. He let it go.
     We had to hurry back. That meant going straight across the pond, through the deepest part, the part that the campers usually thought was where the crab lived. I made sure not to point this out.
     Mickey and I each paddled hard. We made it about 3/5 of the way there, but then we both put our paddles across our laps.
     "What's the matter?? Why are we stopping?" exclaimed Lisa.
     It was not until now that I noticed she was holding onto the sides of the boat so that her knuckles were white. "We just have to rest. We're almost there." She didn't let up any though.
     I put my feet over the sides into the water. Mickey gave me a wink and said: "Get your feet in! what if it can smell you?" Apparently he had just seen a "Jaws" re-run.
     "What if what can smell him??" asked Carly, her franticness, which had never subsided, growing to new heights.
     It was then that my bare feet on the thin bottom of the aluminum boat felt what seemed to be water moving under us. I looked up to see Mickey looking down and the girls, with their bare legs resting on the cold metal floor of the boat, had felt it too.
     "Oh, my god, oh my god, oh my god! It was the crab. Get me out of here! Now!" Carly cried.
     Lisa grabbed my leg. Ooh, she had nails too. Hopefully she wouldn't draw blood!
     I leaned to look down into the water, and there was a loud thump against the boat. We spun hard as if being pushed, with impressive strength. The boat rocked hard to one side. I was beginning to think it was destined for us to flip that canoe! Luckily, we steadied quicker this time.
     Carly screamed. Lisa screamed. Mickey struggled to get leverage and begin paddling again; I had already begun. He must have lost his balance as he banged on the side of the boat and took that one mighty stroke to make us spin. We went a full 180 degrees! I paddled backwards at first, toward the beach. He was in the position to turn us around.
     He finally did, and we were at the beach within a minute.
     Carly was the only one to speak. "You guys will never get me out on that water again!"
     The girls grabbed their stuff and sprinted to the lodge to dry off. I pulled the boat
in, and put it back under the rowboats. We had escaped with our skin. Even, if we were caught now, we could talk our way out of it. And, we could even explain the screaming somehow. We had done so before.

     Mickey had put away the paddles and life preservers. I was getting my socks and shoes on when he came over to get his shoes.
     I was about to pat him on the back. He had really scared us all, and he had done it well. I'm not sure I could have made that loud a thump without anyone seeing me, even if I had thought of it! And that push was much too strong for me. He spoke first though: "That was really something how you spun that boat around there. You had me pretty scared for a minute there!"