The human body is about sixty percent water. It’s a deceptive figure because we see our bodies as solid things moving through space and water is a fluid that only finds rigidity at cold temperatures.
But blood fills our veins, and our cells are full of water that is important for the absorption of nutrients. It’s no wonder that we can only survive a few days without water. Even though we walk on dry land, humans are water dependent creatures.
Buckey loves the water. He can’t get enough of it, especially lately in Lancaster, South Carolina where he lives and the summer heat is borderline oppressive and thick with humidity. He works as a lifeguard at two local gyms and it’s the only job he’s ever had since he started working at fifteen years old. He swam competitively as a high schooler and for a little while after, but mostly Bucky appreciates that he can get in the water everyday during warm seasons, and even at indoor pools during the cold ones.
Even when he’s off work, Bucky likes to take his father’s boat to Cane Creek in Waxhaw, North Carolina and sit out on the water, lazily fishing and sometimes jumping in to swim around.
Today he is on Cane Creek, staring out at the water with an easy smile on his face. His pole dangles over the side, he hasn’t caught anything yet, but he barely pays attention to it. And as he stares off into the serenity of the weekend, a face begins to materialize. The face floats in the space before him, as though it is attached to a body that sits across from him in his boat. But there is no body. The face is flat, the forehead is prominently flat and the human eyes are far apart, making them seem very inhuman.
Bucky startles. He is shirtless and he bangs his shoulder hard against something and feels blood dripping down his back.
“You possess the ability to retrieve the sun of the lake,” the face says. The skin of the face is brown and the hair is straight and black, Bucky can tell even if the face is ghostly and the view behind it is legible through its form.
“What?” Bucky says, and looks at the wound on his shoulder that stings and is bleeding, but it isn’t particularly deep or serious. “The sun of the lake?”
“Deep within me, within the waters below, is a forgotten treasure that was lost very long ago. It is a treasure of great value, even today, and it was lost so long ago because of the conflict it started between the two who discovered it. There were two men, one of the Catawba and one of the Waxhaw, who hated the white man after the start of the Tuscarora War, they fled their tribes and made a life here on the beach. It did not last long, but in the time that they found peace together, away from war and death, they found a lump of gold almost as big as their heads. They could only carry it together, so they needed one another to keep it safe. But they disagreed about what to do with it. The Waxhaw wanted to sell it and move west to lands that weren’t so hostile to brown men, but the Catawba wanted to use it to trade for protection and peace from the white man. He figured that if the two of them brought it to the greedy white man, that they would enjoy favor with them and that would allow the two to continue their lives on the beach. But the Waxhaw saw that as naive folly. One night, as the Catawba slept, the Waxhaw loaded the gold lump onto a raft that the two used for fishing, his goal was to make it across the lake and sell it as fast as he could before the Catawba could catch up. But when the Catawba woke early the next morning and saw the Waxhaw still in the water, he swam out after him and caught up to him. The two fought and killed one another and they both, along with the gold, fell into the center of the lake. It still managed to shine, even at its depth, and it is the sun of the lake, waiting for someone like you to find it. You are a strong swimmer, the sun could be yours.”
Bucky listens and when the face is done, he laughs out loud.
“I ain’t swimming to the bottom of the lake! I don’t care what’s down there.”
“So be it. But know that I only appear to the worthy. I would like the sun gone, it disturbs the sleep of creatures that dwell near it and I think that there is magic in it that disrupts my own.”
“Who are you?” Bucky asks.
“I am the spirit of the lake,” the face says. “If you are not interested, I bid you farewell to wait for another who can remove the sun from my depths.”
Bucky watches as the face slips away and into the water. He stares down at water from the side of his boat, wondering if he can trust the experience.
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