Robert Alexander

A bright afternoon, and late enough in the year that the sun has moved out of the shadow of the trees and casts a welcome warmth as Ralph paddles on the calm water, so calm the clouds are reflected beneath him and it’s as though he’s paddling in the middle of the sky. He approaches the spot where a small creek makes its trickling way to Sable Lake. A couple of cedars have fallen where the bank collapsed last year and now stretch out into the water, making a tangle of brush, and as Ralph lifts his paddle, listening to the slight noise that water makes sliding downhill into other water, he hears an animal rustling in the branches. Looking closer, he sees a dark shape coming toward him, the size of a small cat, dark brown fur, and then the mink stops, looking at him, small dark eyes not three feet away, a splash of white on his chin like a cat who’s been lapping some cream. In a moment, paddling again, Ralph accompanies the mink along the shoreline scrambling in and out of roots and tangles, small clawed feet slipping on the wet rocks. Sun in the sky and scattered clouds on the water’s surface, they continue on together, headed toward twilight and the south end of the lake.