Eddylines

recurring

"What do we do if the boat goes over?" Daszé asked, snapping his sprayskirt into place as a cloud moved on and the river began to twinkle in the late morning light.

"We lean forward and count to five!" Aurora and Vadaamé chimed, competing to see who could hunch forward farther.

"And if we don't come up after five?" Marek said, buckling his helmet and checking that his adopted daughter's lifejacket and helmet were appropriately snug.

 "We go like this!" Both little 'oyar reached for the grab loops with precision, their movements careful and steady with regard to the gravity of such a situation.

"And then what?"

"We SWIM!" The girls threw themselves backwards with their hands in the air, and collapsed into giggles. 

"And how do we swim?"

"Noooose and toooooes!"

"Excellent! Now let's just hope nobody swims so your mothers don't kill us," Marek observed with a laugh, adjusting his skirt on the rear cockpit of the tandem kayak. "Speaking of, how are they making out?"

Just upriver, a raft was putting into the water with the help of Daszé's sister Sirsin as she chatted with the occupants and her friends on the shore. She was still in her teens, but she had already proven herself among the guides, spending her summers on Fife and the Dryway with plenty of local boating in between.

However, she was off the clock today, and as she gave her gawky human co-worker a stern fistbump and shoved the raft out into the current, her paddle was already in hand. 

"Don't fu- er, screw it up," she warned him, suddenly mindful of the little ears in proximity. "There's family in this boat." She narrowed her eyes. "And they're all more important than you."

"Gee, thanks, Sirsie," he replied snarkily, clearly overwhelmed by his unusual charges. He recognized the tall, slightly anxious female Caaratiige from the news, but not the short female 'oyar who shared her misgivings about the whole affair, nor the two women in their mid-twenties who were clearly a couple and would not stop splashing one another with their paddles. 

"Ready, ladies?" Marek asked, and the little girls nodded vigorously as their fathers began to heave and wiggle their heavy two-person boats toward the water's edge. It didn't go well until Sirsin hurried over to give them both a helpful push, and then they were in.

"It's COLD!" Vadaamé shrieked gleefully, pulling her hands from the water with an astonished expression as her Daszé ferried them across the across the pool above Hangover Helper. 

"Get used to it, voesza'ti!" he laughed, sprinkling her with droplets from his paddle. "They let it out from the very bottom of the dam!"

"That thing up there?" Aurora asked, pointing upstream as Marek eddied their boat out behind a rock.

"That's it! It's the Bear Swamp Dam, so watch out."

Their daughters stared across the water at one another in shock, processing the name in mutual silence until Vadaamé piped up. "There's bears?"

"There's always bears. Water bears," Marek said, watching the proceedings on the raft as the guide explained the necessities before they tackled Hangover Helper. "What'd ya say we beat your moms and aunts down the rapid so we can watch them go by?"

"Ain't gonna beat me," Sirsin called, slipping her playboat into the water across the river and immediately heading for the flow on the left side. "See you at the bottom, yaashto'di."

"She's so RUDE," Aurora exclaimed, twisting around to face her father from the front of the boat. "Let's get her!"

"Sounds good to me," Marek chuckled, and peeled out into the flow.

"How about us?" Daszé asked his daughter, waking her from her reverie as she gazed at the rippling stones on the river bottom. "Wanna make a big splash?"

"Only if Mommy gets to see it!" she said, and Daszé agreed, shooting a warm smile at Arytzi as she perched on the edge of the raft and listened intently to the guide's instructions. She seemed to sense him, and replied to them both with an affectionate wink before they all turned and placed their paddles in the water.

"That's our cue, voesza, cover your nose and hang on!" he laughed, plunging them out into the flow and carving toward the tongue on the left side. A few paddle strokes put them around the raft, and then they were on the descent. 

He had mixed feelings as they raced toward the curling maw of the hole at the bottom. How would his daughter fare? Would she connect with the river the way he and Sirsin did, or would she regret the experience? She'd begged him to try, always asking to go along and see what her father did on weekends, but until Marek had found the boats for cheap and the girls had gotten big enough for it to be safe, it just hadn't been in the cards.

Now was the moment of truth, and as the river threatened to swallow her whole, he had to hope for the best.

The wave crashed into her, over her, and then across his chest as they resurfaced on the opposite side. He blinked madly, desperately wishing the warbling sounds of water on his helmet would fade so he could hear her. Knowing his daughter, it was going to be a displeased wail, or a-

Delighted squeal.

He breathed a sigh of relief and eddied out into the big pool among the rocks as the raft splashed down behind them amid a flurry of excited cries and wide eyes.

"How're you doing, maple-leaf?" he asked as Vadaamé and Aurora blinked and pointed and gestured at one another and their aunt Sirsin, both trying to tell the same amazing story in increasingly louder words from two languages. 

When she finally turned to him, a broad smile graced her face. "The water bear tried to eat me," she stated defiantly. "But that did NOT happen."

Sirsin cackled. "Just wait, 'ardaan, there's plenty more further down!"

Vadaamé beamed wildly, and they punched out into the current to chase down the raft.

***

"I want to do that some day," Vadaamé observed, watching Sirsin as she danced her boat across the face of the wave just beyond the train bridge, gliding back and forth with an admirable security in her skills. Her paddling was almost lazily effortless, but it was the product of countless hours and hard work, and she had earned her gracefulness.

"How about today?" Daszé asked, backpaddling into the eddy behind the rockpile and taking hold on a rock. It triggered a memory from eight years ago, and he smiled to himself.

"We can do that?!"

"Vha, even this big old thing will surf," he laughed. "Not as good as Sirsin, but good enough."

"Right now?"

A loud splash from under the bridge announced the arrival of Marek and Aurora, and he whistled to get their attention, pointing upriver. A few seconds later, Marek replied with a thumbs up, and Daszé hustled them back into the flow with the bow aimed upstream.

"We're going BACKWARDS?!" Vadaamé cried in alarm.

"Yup! Hang on tight, maple-leaf!"

The long tandem began to slide backwards into the trough, up the face, and then back in as equilibrium took hold. It was a balancing act, but the wave was clean and the water clear as the boat nosed into the river in a misty splash,  and it contentedly settled into place.

Vadaamé rode along in silent terror, clinging tight to the edges of the cockpit until she realized that they were travelling without moving, steady as could be. Gingerly, carefully, she freed her hands and reached down to touch the water, her tiny fingers cutting the glassy surface in thin lines that sprayed outward and collapsed on themselves with a satisfying hiss.

"Whatcha think, voesza'ti?" her father asked softly as her shoulders unhunched, wistfully hoping the ride would never end.

"It's like flying," she whispered in quiet awe, gazing up into the bright blue sky of a perfect September day.

Daszé smiled.

She understood.

Everything was right in his world, their world, and nothing could make him happier than that.