Canoedling (Marnie)

[Nora Marie "Nory" Gwinn]

Nory had a gift for persuasion. Her brimming optimism could make almost anything sound appealing, and she smiled so much and moved so fast that before you knew it you were along for the ride.

Nevertheless, it had taken her some time to find someone willing to go canoeing with her. Not all of her peers had the same enthusiasm for the outdoors that she did. It was late September, the lake was the color of sleet, and several of the canoes were decidedly rickety.

But Marnie, dear, lovely Marnie, had agreed. The two young women were on the student council together, and Nory liked her. She was kind and helpful and great at coming up with dance themes. Though water, it turned out, was not one of her strong suits.

Nory was already sitting in her end of the canoe, holding onto the dock with one hand, wearing a sweater and a large orange life vest. Her left sleeve hid a bandage from her adventure in the woods two days ago, not that it had slowed her down. “It's okay,” she encouraged her companion. “Just step in and sit down right away, that's what I did. The water's only like four feet deep here anyway.”

[Marnie Sullivan]

Similarly clad in an orange life jacket, Marnie was trying to goad herself into stepping into the boat. How had she let Nory talk her into this? She'd never been canoeing in her life! Sure, the life jacket was reassuring, but that water looked terribly cold.

“I'm going, I'm going!” she insisted, as she steeled herself to make the leap. Figurative leap. No way was she actually leaping off the pier, whether or not it was into a boat. Maybe if she just sat on the edge and scooted closer to the canoe? It was close enough to the pier to reach with her legs... It was worth a shot, Marnie decided, before plopping herself down on the wooden planks.

“Okay, here goes,” she muttered, more to herself than to Nory. Careful to keep her shoes from grazing the surface of the water, Marnie swung her feet out and planted them in the canoe. So far so good! One hand on the pier, she used the other to reach out and grasp Nory's shoulder and pull herself aboard with a frightened “yeep!”

Hurriedly, Marnie say on one of the canoe's little benches – were they benches if they were in a canoe? - before the thing could start rocking, and grabbed on of the paddles.

“All right,” she said, after a deep breath. “Now where to?”

[Nora Marie "Nory" Gwinn]

Nory braced her arms against the dock in expectation of Marnie's boarding. "You've got this," she said confidently. "You could try sitting--yeah, yeah, like that. Here, let me..." She readjusted in her seat and wobbled the canoe a few inches closer to the dock. "There you go!"

Marnie's boarding elicited a few seconds of bouncing and rocking, but Nory steadied them on the dock and in a moment the canoe was resting calmly. She beamed at Marnie. "I'm so glad you're coming! This is going to be so much fun." She twisted around in her seat to point with her free hand.  "There's a peninsula over there," she said. A hundred yards away, a forested slip of land jutted out into the lake. "I thought it might be fun to see what's on the other side."

Nory had taken the seat in the back of the canoe, and she loosened her grip on the dock until only a few fingers held them steady. She grinned at the back of Marnie's head. "Ready to go?"

[Nora Marie "Nory" Gwinn]

((It should be noted that though this thread is closed, it ended with both Marnie and Nory being dumped in the lake, then floundering in slapstick panic until they were rescued.))