Bicentennial Summer

Dad took the exit, and we descended to Donner Lake. “Okay. Let’s make this snappy—not like yesterday at Lake Tahoe, all right? Maybe just like a quick baptism.” He chuckled. “I want to get to San Francisco, and it’s only about four hours from here if we don’t stop too much.”

We waded into the equally cold water of Donner Lake. I did a speedy crawl stroke to the swim lines marked by buoys and then returned to shore. This lake also had beautiful gold bits suspended in the water, maybe even more than Lake Tahoe did.

“I love these little gold flecks,” I remarked to no one in particular.

“I think they’re called fool’s gold,” Dad said. Then he submerged. The twins were splashing and doing handstands. He sputtered to the surface, grasping the air around his head. “Don’t move. Freeze!” he commanded, his tone serious. We froze.

“Why? What happened?” I said, holding still.

“I just dropped my glasses. Son of a gun!” He made a sound that could only be described as something akin to whimpering. “I forgot to take them off. Please don’t move. Don’t step on them.”

He looked naked and vulnerable without them, reminding me of  Velma from Scooby-Doo with his arms groping around in front of him. For a few breaths, I worried he wouldn’t find them and I’d have to drive all the way home because he was as blind as a bat. Lucky for him, the water’s clarity was equal to Lake Tahoe’s, and his glasses were visible right there on the lake floor, near his feet.

Visible to me, at least. Nothing was visible to him, regardless of the water’s clarity.

“Mary,” he said somewhat desperately, “can you dive down and get them?”

The twins looked at me expectantly, and I caught Jill’s eye for a split second. Eager to adopt the role of fun older sister and doing my best to keep everything copacetic, I said, “Yeah, Dad. I can see them right now. No problem.”

Even though I was still mad at him, I took a big breath and decided to do the right thing because it was the right thing. They were only about three feet down, so I easily retrieved them. It did feel good to be helpful rather than mean. Being grumpy just wasn’t in my nature—but forgiveness was not going to be as easy as retrieving submerged eyeglasses.