Fourth Lake, Chapter 12

While having her coffee on Sunday morning, August 4, 1974, Judy recalled the fabulous night before she spent with Phil.  When she finally got out of the lake, she quickly grabbed her clothes laying on the deck and scurried into the cottage, with her husband close behind.  Once inside behind locked doors, the two of them let their imaginations run wild.  Judy slept well and woke up snuggling next to her husband.

For some strange, unexplainable reason, Judy started to feel a kind of an urge to go to church this Sunday morning.  Growing up in Queens, her parents had never been very religious.  The family was nominally Christian and celebrated Christmas and Easter.  She remembered going to church services a few times on Christmas Eve, but never on a regular basis nor at the same church.  Judy believed in Jesus Christ, in God, but it was not a big, important deal for her.  Or to Phil, either.  They were raising their children the same way.

“Say, Phil, let’s go to church today.

“What?  Are you serious?”

“Yeah.  I think it would be nice to go to that white church on the other side of Fourth Lake we rode to in the canoe.  I think I would feel kind of serene being there.  I’m sure there’s a service this morning.”

“You’re not suggesting we go in a canoe, are you?”

“No, silly, in our car.”

So Judy and Phil got in their car and headed around towards the white church on the other side of Fourth Lake.  They passed through Inlet and then followed the road towards Eagle Bay.  There was almost no traffic.  However, there was one stop sign in Eagle Bay.  After they came to a complete stop, a car, a big black Cadillac, turned right from a side street and drove past them back toward Inlet.  When it passed, Judy turned and looked at Phil who was driving their car.  At that very instant, she got a quick look at the driver of the other car.  At first, it didn’t register in her mind.  But then when she turned back to look straight ahead, it hit her.  It was the same man she saw in Billy’s Restaurant in Old Forge on Friday... she thought.  It was somebody she knew, but couldn’t remember whom it was.  Judy quickly turned around to look back, but the car was too far away to see anything.

“Did you see that car we just passed?”  she asked.

“What car?”

“The car that...oh, never mind.”

As they arrived at the white church on the lake, a number of others had arrived as well.  The service was just about to begin.  It was perfect timing.  Pure luck on the part of Phil and Judy.

They sat on a bench near the rear of the small, beautiful old church.  Besides the ritual prayers from the Bible, the minister, a short, thin man in his 60s, talked about love: love of God, love of nature, love of our fellow man.  It was a beautiful service which lasted about an hour.  Judy was right.  The service did relax her.  When it was over, the minister walked to the front door of the church to greet everybody as they left.  When it was their turn, Judy introduced herself and Phil and commented on how much they had enjoyed the service.  The minister realized they were new to the church and was very welcoming.  He said he hoped they would come again.  The three of them made small talk until Judy excused themselves so the minister could talk to the next couple in line.

Before returning to their car, at Judy’s request they walked to the shore line to gaze out over Fourth Lake.  It wasn’t too far away from where they had landed a few days earlier in their rented canoe.  They chatted a little about that day, what they each remembered.  Again, they had a good view of Dollar Island, this time from ground level.  Judy started rolling around in her head a plan for them to get there.  A week from today, the 11th, they would have to leave their cottage to pick up their two daughters at gymnastics camp and then drive back home to Little Neck.  To Judy, time was running out on this, perhaps the final adventure of her trip to Fourth Lake.