Lake house Anonymous

The sun warms my frozen skin, and the granite flecked with pine needles and ants is rough under my beach towel. Gratefully I accept an apple and a piece of baguette with cheese from my father, and reluctantly pass the bag of trail mix resplendent with m & m's on to my mom. "Hey what's this shiny thing in the water?" says Henry, my younger brother. "I don't know" replies dad. "Why don't you dive in and see if you can get it?" And so he dives in from the shore, diving deeper to grasp what ever the thing is. "Hey dad it looks like its half a ring… you don't think it's…?" "No" mum interjects "It couldn't possibly be, hundreds of people must come here every year" Then she looks at it and then… "Well dive down and see if you can find the other half!"

Having already gone for my yearly dip in the icy waters, I don't volunteer to help search from underwater. Instead, I help search from above, pointing out every shiny thing I see. Eventually Henry surfaces, with another piece of gold metal. It's my father's wedding ring, which -- lost somewhere in this lake almost 6 years ago -- has survived years of violent snowmelt, and avoided detection by countless other strangers. It has been waiting here just for us all that time.

It's funny in...