Rainy River

After six days staying at the lodge, I had to make up my mind if I should leave to Canada or war. It was early in the afternoon when the old man took me fishing on my last day. I wanted to repay the old man for letting me stay in his lodge. So we set up a boat and we set off into the Rainy River. Well going through the river, it made me think of how the border was inches away. How I could just jump out of the boat and swim to it. We stop in an area big and wide. It felt like we passed the border now. How the smell of Canada air was blowing into my face. The old man didn’t say anything to me. He just sat there setting up his fishing pole. I looked out to the shore and saw the sun shining through the trees on the water. How the border wasn’t actually that far. I could jump out of the boat and be safe in Canada, but some how I felt like someone was yelling at me. I felt like I heard the town people call me a failure. I couldn’t just swim away from my hometown. I felt a burning inside of me. I didn’t realize I was crying. I wanted to stop but I couldn’t. I looked over to see if the old man notice but he was just minding his own business. He didn’t ask me if I was okay or why I was crying. He knew everything I was going through. He understood my pain and my choices I have to pick. If I should flee or head off to war. I was inches from home safe. I wanted to stop crying but somehow inside me I couldn’t stop. The old man didn’t pay any attention to me so I just kept on crying. I wanted to stop. I felt embarrassed for crying. It shows that I can’t be brave enough for the war. Twenty one years old, crying all my sorrow out. All I could was sit there and cry away. I felt ashamed of myself for crying. The old man didn’t saying anything to me after a while. “Ain’t biting.” He only said to me. We ended back to the lodge. We didn’t talk at all or anything.

The next morning, I went to look for the old man to pay off my stay here at his lodge. When I searched everywhere around the lodge, I couldn’t find the old man. I wanted to say thanks to him for understanding me and knowing what I went through. I waited in the lodge for a while, but he ended not showing up. I left the money on the table and I ended home. It wasn’t a happy ending. I was coward at the end, but I went to war.