Jen's first trip to the Lake

Jen had never gone swimming in anything larger than the peed-in public swimming pool at the city’s recreation center. So, the view from the back deck of a houseboat smack dab in the middle of Lake Powell was awesome and frightening, all at the same time.

The sun was high in a truly cerulean sky, bouncing its beams off the red rock that walled all around the boat. It was hotter than hell, to tell the truth, and that made the water all the more inviting.

But, Jen resisted. She wasn’t the best swimmer. Three sets of swimming lessons when she was a kid and even her doggy paddle was sad!

“Good Lord, woman! You’ve got a life jacket on!” Her husband always had such encouraging words for her.

Jen spit her tongue out at him. “Give me a second, will ya?”

Hubby just rolled his head and let out a hearty guffaw. “I gave you a second eighteen hundred seconds ago!”

Jen bit on her lower lip and shook her head as she studied the murky water off the back of the boat. “I can’t see a damn thing in there! What if I get mauled by some big-ass mutant catfish!?”

Her husband laughed out loud at that. “Are you kidding?”

Jen growled in frustration – partly because of her cowardice; partly to make herself do something about her cowardice.

“No sharks in the Lake, right?”

“Oh, now you’re just being funny. Get in there!”

Jen inched her way to the edge of the boat. She teetered there for a moment, tightening the straps on her life jacket.

She smiled at her husband and he winked at her. “You’ll be fine, sweetie.”

“I’ll hold you to that. Here goes nothin’!”

Jen plugged her nose and jumped.