“Tonio and I will follow the trail along the river up to the bend that looks over the abandoned Civil War railroad crossing. We’ll act as judges to see which team gets there first. Okay?”
The quartet nodded.
Galen and Tonio headed for the trail, while Nancy and Edison slid the canoes to the edge of the river. They made sure Carmelita and Freddie’s life jackets were secured, helped the children into their respective shells, and then carefully climbed aboard.
“Nancy, let’s use that large Jackson Oak tree on the bank as the starting point. Freddie, I want you to watch how I hold the paddle and how I bring it down into the water to get the most force behind it. Carmelita, watch how your tia does the paddling. After a while, we’ll let you join in.”
Whatever trepidation the children might have felt about being on the water quickly dissipated. This was a calm, shallow stream, not a vast, raging ocean, and the pleasantness of the day captivated them all.
Memory inevitably slipped Edison and Nancy back to the first day they met—only now they sat in separate canoes. Under their controlled paddling, they moved the boats to the middle of the river and held their position.
“We’ll start on the count of three,” Nancy said.
The children shouted, in unison, “ONE, TWO, THREE!” and Nancy and Edison began energetically stroking, as the canoes shot forward, one and all laughing loudly.
“Tio Galen, are you angry that I didn’t want to go in the water?”
“No, Tonio. I know you must have a very good reason. Do you want to talk about it?”
Tonio meekly shook his head, so Galen continued walking but moving slowly enough for him to keep up.
Then Tonio stopped, and Galen stopped as well, turning to him.
“What’s wrong?”
“Tio, do you love me as much as you love Freddie and Carm?”
He saw that the boy was serious.
“Of course, Tonio! Why do you ask?”
“Would you have saved me like Tio Eddie saved Freddie today?”
Galen squatted down to look him in the eye.
“Yes, Tonio. Tio Eddie, Tia Nancy, and I would have worked just as hard, maybe even harder, to save you if you had been in trouble.”
Then he reached over, swept the boy up on his shoulders, and resumed the tour of the trail. In minutes he was pointing out and naming the birds, small animals, and plants they encountered, and Tonio grew giddy at the new experiences.
Galen’s eyes misted, as he realized how much the boy’s moods were like his own, and he wondered if having a son would have been like this.
The two canoes swept forward, bows neck and neck, as they rounded one river bend then another. The water grew a little darker now, almost channel depth. Soon the old railroad crossing trestle appeared in the distance, as well as something else among the glacier-strewn boulders.
Just then Freddie yelled, “What’s that?”
Nancy and Edison saw the problem immediately: An overturned canoe abutted one of the large stones, a young girl clinging to the side.
Both adults paddled toward the trouble spot, with Edison’s canoe getting there first. He caught water to bring the boat to a stop, reached over carefully to avoid tipping, and with Freddie’s help lifted the girl aboard.
“Nancy, I’m going to take this child to the rendezvous point with Galen. She doesn’t appear hurt, just in shock. Will you show Carmelita how to salvage an overturned canoe and follow us to the bridge crossing?”
“Sure,” she replied. “We’ll be right behind you.”
The girl was conscious but moaning softly.
“My sister, where is she?”
Edison bent toward her.
“Was someone else in the canoe with you?”
She started to cry.
“We got into an argument, and somehow the boat tipped over.”
“There she is!” Freddie yelled and pointed toward a second rock farther on.
Edison paddled hard toward the other girl, who appeared unconscious. Suddenly Freddie leaped out of the boat. Before Edison could stop him, he swam toward her. He reached her quickly and instinctively threw his arms around her to raise her up. Edison arrived a few moments later, positioned the canoe, and slowly lifted the child into it.
Then Freddie spotted his brother and Galen, but before he could call out, Edison had reached over and wrenched him into the canoe by his shorts.
“Freddie, I could…” He paused as he thought better of his words then quickly paddled to the river bank, where Galen and Tonio were standing. Nancy and Carmelita were not far behind, with the girls’ canoe in tow. All the boats ran up the sloping bank together.
Galen reached out and pulled both canoes farther onto the sandy soil then scanned the two new occupants of Edison’s canoe. The older girl, about twelve, was still crying. The younger one was breathing but not moving. He gently picked her up, placed her on the riverbank, and examined her for injuries.
“Tio Galen, will she live?” Freddie whispered.
“Oh yes,” Galen said, smiling, as the girl opened her eyes and saw the wet boy standing next to the big man.
At nine years old going on sixteen, Freddie couldn’t take his eyes off her. Her hazel eyes seemed to penetrate his water-soaked skin. Wet, blonde hair closely framed her baby-round face.
“What happened?” he asked.
The older sister answered first.
“We were visiting Grandpa Alex and Grandma Debbie here in Front Royal. Our daddy is with the Air Force—Colonel Luke Daumier. He’s being transferred to a post in Pennsylvania next week, so we thought we’d do one last canoe trip. But then she started to act like a brat, and the canoe overturned.”
Freddie moved closer to the younger girl. He had never seen anyone so pretty.
She looked up at him.
“Did you save me?”
Freddie didn’t know what to say, so Edison said it for him.
“Yes, my dear, he did.”
“What’s your name?”
“Freddie Hidalgo,” he stammered. “Wha … what’s yours?”
“Lilly Daumier.”
Before he could jump back, she sprang from the ground and threw her arms around him.
“Okay, let’s get the girls back to their folks and the boats back to rental,” Nancy said. She and Carmelita helped the two girls along the path, accompanied by Freddie, who wanted “to keep them safe.” Galen and Tonio brought up the rear, while Edison alone powered the armada of rope-linked canoes back up the river.
“Tia Nancy, why did Freddie do that … I mean … jump into the river?”
“Because he’s a boy, Carm. Because he’s impulsive, impetuous, and…”
She thought back to the day that a certain scrawny, cross-eyed young man had climbed into her canoe despite her protests. She sighed.
“Tio Galen, why did Freddie turn all red when the girl hugged him?”
“There are several answers to that, Tonio. The scientific one has to do with dilated blood vessels just under the skin. The human one has to do with feelings. Unfortunately, we can’t control either one. Let’s head back now.”
Bear and cub moved in unison