“I’ll get the paddleboard on the rocks,” I called up to Mason. He was already halfway up the stone stairs that led up the hill. I leaped up onto the first stair, and bounded up the hill, jumping two stairs with every stride.
I was overjoyed to be in Northern Michigan on Long Lake, the largest of the twenty inland lakes in Long Lake Township. My hockey teammate, Mason, had invited me up to his amazing lake house. It was big and modern, surrounded by trees with a stairway leading down to the water. The lake itself was huge, it had many islands, one big enough to be a nature preserve home to a bald eagle, and if you were lucky, you could witness a seaplane landing on the crisp, shining water of the lake. I was full of energy, and I was putting