Fifty-Two Minutes of Summer

"She was the lake."

This is the opening line of the third chapter in the third installment of the BryonySeries novel Before The Blood.

And it kept running through my head through the fifty-two minutes I spent immersed in Falls Lake, North Caroline a few weeks ago.

I don't know if early childhood experiences shaped my love for water or if that love is something innate

All I know is that summer, for me, is associated with water, and summer is never summer without swimming, lakes, oceans.

I've been married twice and both husbands were afraid of water. So out of respect, we never engaged in activities that might trigger that fear.

I didn't travel during the pandemic, so no Falls Lake for me.

The last time I saw Falls Lake was 2019. And I remember thinking as I paddled in the waters that a year was a long time, but not really, that 2020 would be here before I knew it.

Well, we all know what happened in 2020.

But then circumstances prevented my from traveling in 2021.

As the summer of 2022 was closing, I couldn't believe another summer was to vanish without being truly summer.

But Timothy and I finally had an opportunity to fly to Raleigh for a couple of days shortly after Labor Day to see my father who is not well.

Four of us (Timothy, Sarah, Lucas, and me) had our lunch one day by the lake. And then we had fifty-two minutes to enjoy the lake before we had to leave.

Timothy snapped this photo shortly before we headed to the restrooms to change.

Fifty-two minutes isn't a long time.

But it was fifty-two minutes I didn't think I'd have this year.

And it must do until 2023.