Skipping Stones (Short Story)
I marched out of my dad’s lake cabin and began on the familiar dirt trail along the trees. I’d purposely picked a fight with Dad to get an excuse to have some time alone. This was our 7th year coming to this cabin. We came every year the second weekend in May and I was old enough to know why he chose this weekend to come. Now that I was 17, I knew that this would probably be our last annual cabin trip and I didn’t know how to feel about it.
I walked the trail and knew I had been rude the entire trip. We had been at the cabin for two days and only had a day and a half left. I walked until I couldn’t see the cabin anymore and sat on a tree stump, facing the water. I picked up a few rocks and started throwing them into the water. Mom used to love skipping stones and I never actually learned how to do it. I remembered the words she used to tell me when she tried to teach me how to do it,
“Ok, honey, get a flat rock. It has to be flat. Don’t throw it like a jumpshot in basketball. Throw it like you’re throwing a CD at someone you hate. Like that Cindy girl you were telling me about.”
We would laugh and I would throw the stone into the lake. It never quite skipped and she would say, “It’s ok, it just takes practice.”
After a few tries, I got frustrated and threw the rocks on the ground.
“Forget it,” I said and would walk away.
That was seven years ago.
I tried to skip another one. I stood up, took the flat stone, and threw it, just like I was throwing a CD. Not one skip. It just sank.
“Whatever,” I said out loud and sat back down on the stump.
I knew my dad meant well, but I didn’t want to be here anymore. It didn’t feel right to be here without Mom. Each year it felt like more and more memories of her were fading away and although I was happy with escaping the pain of having her gone the last few years, this year I just wanted to remember her rather than try and get my mind off her. I sat on the stump, staring at the water, and replayed the last conversation I’d had with her, one of the only things I remember so vividly.
“Mom, can you take me to the park? I told Madison I’d meet her there.”
“No, Jordan. I have to go to the church for a meeting. Ask your dad.”
“I did. He told me to ask you,” I said as I went to the refrigerator and grabbed a gatorade.
“Can’t you walk to the park?” she asked as she left to the living room in a hurry. I followed.
“It’s six blocks!” I said getting a little annoyed.
“You’ve walked six blocks before, Jordan.” I could tell she was getting equally annoyed.
“But I have to take my basketball. We’re practicing for the game tomorrow.”
“And you can’t walk with a basketball in your hand?”
“Moooom,” I whined.
“Jordan, stop. You’re getting too old for this…why can’t your dad take you?”
“He has the seminar to speak at tonight.”
“Oh, right I forgot.”
She sat there thinking for a minute and went back to flipping the couch cushions over.
“Ok, I’ll take you because I don’t want you leaving with no one here. Help me find my keys. I’m already late to the meeting.”
“Got em,” I said as I got them out of the kitchen drawer.
She dropped me off at the park and promised to pick me up after her meeting. She never did. Madison’s mother had to take me to her house and my dad picked me up from there and broke the news that my mom had gotten into an accident after dropping me off.
I threw a huge stone into the water, more so out of anger than trying to skip it.
“Whoa, you almost had the fish jumping out of the water with that one,” my dad’s voice came after the splash of the rock.
“Dad, come on. Don’t sneak up on me like that,” I said without taking my eyes off the water. He sighed and stood next to me, looking at the water like I did. After a few moments of silence, he said,
“You know your mom and I bought this cabin about fifteen years ago?”
“Really?”
“Yeah. We sometimes came here while you were at camp to do some fishing.”
“I didn’t know Mom liked to fish.”
“She didn’t, but you know how much she liked the lake and just being outdoors connecting with nature.”
“Yeah,” was all I said.
“Jordie if you want to cut our trip short, we can go home. I don’t want to force you to stay here.”
I felt like a real jerk when he said that. I knew he was trying to make me feel comfortable just like he’s done every day for the last seven years. And now that I knew he spent time with Mom at this cabin, I realized, for the first time, that it wasn’t that he was handling Mom’s death so well, but that he was hiding his pain from me.
“No, Dad, we can stay. I just…I miss her, you know.”
“Yeah, I know,” he said in almost a whisper.
“Sometimes I think if I hadn’t asked Mom to take me to the park that day, maybe the accident wouldn’t have happened.”
He placed his hand on my shoulder and I tried hard not to cry.
“Don’t ever think that way. It’s not your fault.”
I stood up and buried my head in his chest and he hugged me back. We stayed that way for a few minutes and I knew he would hold me as long as I needed it.
“If you ever want to talk about it, you know I’ll listen. I don’t want you to think you have to go off on your own.”
“I know, Dad. I was just trying to skip a stone like Mom used to do.”
He let me go and looked at me.
“Let me see you try.”
“No, I suck.”
He laughed and picked one up himself. He threw it up in the air a few times and caught it. Then he threw it in the water like Mom used to do and it skipped.
“I didn’t know you knew how to skip them too,” I said.
“Of course. I was the one who showed your mother.”
I picked one up and threw it in like I did earlier.
“Well no wonder it’s not skipping. You’re throwing it a little too close. Throw it a little harder and further. Flick it instead of tossing it.”
He showed me by example.
“Mom told me to throw it like a CD, like I’m mad at someone.”
He laughed and I laughed too.
“Well, I’m not surprised. She wasn’t the best at teaching.”
I smiled. We spent the next few hours sitting by the lake talking about our memories of Mom. Dad told me things I’d never even known about her. By the time sunset hit, we were still talking and laughing and ready to call it a night. We stood up to head back to the cabin and I picked up another stone and did as my dad said earlier. I relaxed, threw it a little harder, further, let it glide. And it skipped twice.
