“Let’s ask my mom if we can go on a walk to the creek. I want to go wading.” Angie told her friend Melissa.
“That sounds like fun,” Melissa said, following Angie to the kitchen. There was always something fun to do whenever Melissa visited her friend’s house.
After getting permission, the two girls stepped out into the hot, humid, sunny day. They had to cross a pasture to get to the creek, so Angie pushed apart the fence wires and stepped through. Then she held the wires apart so Melissa could also get through the fence into the goat pasture.
The girls walked across the pasture, through another fence, and into the woods. They walked down a dirt path to the stream. They lifted their skirts and stepped into the gurgling water. The two friends talked and laughed as they walked further downstream to a special spot in the creek where they always loved to go.
It was at this spot that the creek bed was filled with some unusual rocks. When these rocks were dry, they were grey, but when they got wet, they turned a very pretty blue.
After spending some time admiring the blue rocks, Melissa turned to Angie and said, “Let’s go walk through that big culvert under the road.”
“Yes, let’s do that and then we can walk along the road back to the driveway.”
They stepped out of the cool water and walked through the woods to the tunnel-like culvert. The girls went through the dark tunnel to the other side and Melissa scrambled up the steep bank to the gravel road.
Suddenly, realizing she was alone, Melissa turned around and saw that Angie was still at the entrance of the tunnel looking into a pool of water. She moved a rock, then screamed and scrambled up the bank to join Melissa. “There was a crayfish under there!” she exclaimed.
The girls’ dress hems were damp from the creek but soon dried in the hot sun as they walked back towards the house. When they were halfway in the lane, Angie said, “Do you want to take the boat out on the pond? We have some oars that are fun to use.”
Melissa grinned in excitement, “That would be lots of fun!” She followed Angie into the barn to help get the oars and life jackets.
The girls snapped on their orange life jackets and pushed the boat out into the pond water. Soon they had paddled out to the middle of the pond and sat there, watching the water slowly ripple around them.
“Hey, I know what we should do now!” Angie said. “Let’s bang the water with our oars to make splashes. Like this.” Angie slapped the surface of the pond with her oar. Melissa followed her example and began splashing on her side of the boat.
Their splashes got bigger and bigger. They were having a lot of fun seeing who could make the biggest splash. Melissa lifted her oar into the air and hit the water extra hard. As expected, the water splashed, but when Melissa lifted her oar, all she had was the handle. The paddle end had broken off and was floating just under the surface of the water next to the boat. She reached into the water, grabbed the broken paddle, and placed both pieces of the oar in the boat.
For a moment, Angie and Melissa looked at each other in silence. Melissa felt guilty for breaking the oar and Angie felt bad for suggesting that they splash in the water.
“Let’s go back to shore and put the oars in the barn,” Angie said. “It doesn’t matter that it broke. They’re just old ones anyway,” she finished, somewhat uncertainly.
Melissa thought that was a good idea and helped Angie pull the boat out of the water. They picked up the life jackets and the oars and carried them into the barn.
Melissa felt bad but she did not want to tell anyone that she had broken the oar. They passed the pile of sweet-smelling hay bales and the noisy goat pen, but Melissa hardly noticed them. All she could think about was that she had broken the oar and that she was going to hide what she had done. Her conscience was bothering her because she knew that her parents and God wanted her to always be honest and to never hide anything.
Just as the girls stepped out of the barn onto the lawn, Angie’s big brother jumped out from behind the barn where he had been hiding. “I saw you and I know what you did!” he told them. “You broke the oar. And guess what!? I followed you the whole time you were in the creek and down by the road too. I’m going to tell Mom that you broke the oar.” He grinned, then ran toward the basement door, disappearing inside.
Angie and Melissa were a little upset that he had been sneaking around watching them (it wasn’t the first time he had done that). But in a strange way, Melissa felt a lot better. She did not need to worry anymore about someone finding out that she had broken the oar, because someone knew already. When Angie’s parents were told about the broken oar, they forgave Melissa for breaking it. Melissa was always very glad that it had not been kept a secret after all.
