The surface of the lake was perfectly smooth, reflecting the moon and stars and looking like a hole in the ground that opened up to the heavens below. The surrounding hills and forest were also reflected, adding to the surreal nature of the view. A solitary, ‘T’ shaped dock reached out into the waters but had never had any boats moored to it. This was a dock built for jumping off of, for having picnics on, and for quiet moments of contemplation.

Ivan stood at the intersection on the dock and stared out over the water. With the exception of the dock, everything looked exactly as it had done when he was a small boy. He and his family use to come here every Summer in their cabin. For a solid two weeks Ivan felt like he was the king of the forest, hiking through the trails, picking wild blueberries, and sketching the wildlife he saw along the way. Sometimes his mom or dad would join him but more often than not he would be out on his own.

The only part of those trips he disliked was swimming in the lake. The water was always bitterly cold. It was fed directly from the snow melting in the nearby mountains and so even in the height of Summer the water was only just above freezing. Ivan much more preferred going out on the lake in the small rowboat his family had. Unfortunately, the boat was too big for Ivan back then to row on his own and so he only ever got to go out in it when either his mom or dad agreed to take him. Somehow, they were never as bothered by the chill of the water as Ivan was and so they tended to prefer to swim.

As Ivan stood there, watching the moon slowly arc overhead, he became aware of voices coming from behind him. He turned and saw the sweeping beam of a flashlight and a handful of silhouettes walking behind. He frowned. It had been many years since his family had sold the property so he wasn’t surprised to see other people here that he didn’t recognize, and neither was he concerned about being seen here. No, what bothered him was that the approaching people, teenagers from the sounds of them, appeared to be wanting to go swimming.

“It’s cold in the water,” Ivan said to the young man in the front of the group. “Really cold.”

The young man had only just reached the dock and hesitated, looking down at the inky water.

“How cold do you think the water is?” he asked the rest of the group.

“Why don’t you dip your toe in and find out?” another young man replied.

He did, shaking off his sandals and dipping his foot into the water. He pulled it back almost at once and gave an involuntary shiver.

“Wow that’s cold!” he exclaimed.

Several of the others followed suit, each testing the water as though needing confirmation for themselves. Each one of them shivered and shook their heads.

“Maybe a midnight swim isn’t such a good idea,” a young woman chimed in.

“Oh come on,” the second young man from before said. “The water always feels cold before you get used to it.”

“This water’s too cold,” Ivan told him. “No one gets used to it.”

He waved a hand in the air as if to silence all naysaying and marched over to the far end of the dock.

“Here, watch. I’ll show you guys it’s not so bad.”

Ivan would have grabbed the young man by the shoulders and held him back if he could have. Instead, he just shouted to the others to stop him. A few of them shifted uneasily on their feet, as though considering whether they should really stop him or not, but before they could act the young man had jumped.

The mirrored surface of the lake broke and sent ripples outward in every direction. The group of friends let out a mixture of gasps and exclamations as they waited for him to surface and either confirm or disprove their initial impressions about the temperature of the water. Ivan just shook his head as he looked down into the depths of the water.

The lake became surprisingly deep rather quickly. Even though the dock was only a few dozen feet long, the water was well over twenty feet deep at the edge of the dock. As the water began to still, Ivan thought he could just make out the form of the young man, already sunken to the bottom and struggling to get his shocked muscles to move the way he wanted them to. Such extremely cold water had a way of shocking the body, preventing it from being able to move properly and dragging you down.

Behind him, the group of friends began to murmur amongst themselves as the seconds dragged on and their friend did not emerge.

“Hey man, come on,” one of them called out, “are you just hiding beneath the dock or what?”

They began to spread out along the dock. Additional flashlights clicked on and their beams moved this ay and that as they tried to see if their friend was indeed hiding beneath the dock. Their lights were useless, however, for piercing the depths of the water since it only reflected the lights back up into their eyes. Before long, they were beginning to panic. Suggestions of diving in after him were shot down after one of the young girls tried to climb into the water, easing herself in rather than diving, and yet still almost succumbing to the cold water. She had to be pulled out by her arms and she was so cold from just that brief exposure that she had to be carried back to the cabin.

Those who remained tried shouting for their friend some more until one of them thought to dip their flashlight just a couple inches beneath the waters surface. IT wasn’t so deep that the water could get to the wiring but deep enough that the light didn’t immediately reflect back up. The lake water was always surprisingly clear and so the beam of light was hardly diminished when it reached their friend. He was lying on the bottom of the lake, unmoving and lifeless. Off to the side of him, half buried in silt, was a small rowboat that had capsized many years ago on a night very much like this one.

Phone calls were made and before long the flashing lights of emergency vehicles were casting multicolored shadows over everything. It took a few hours to get divers down to retrieve the body. By that time there were people sobbing, people staring blankly at nothing, and people pacing back and forth, all of them trying to make sense of the night’s tragedy.

By the time silence returned to the lake the sky was beginning to gain the faint bands of gray along the horizon that precede morning. Ivan remained on the dock the whole time, although now he was joined by a young man. He felt bad that he hadn’t been able to save them all, but at least he’d prevented this from becoming an even larger tragedy. He remembered the looks on his parents faces when they’d come out in the morning and realized what had happened. He knew the young man would be feeling much of the same regret, the same powerlessness.

“I’m Ivan,” Ivan said at last, holding out his hand.

The young man looked at him for a moment, his expression sad and afraid, and then took Ivan’s hand and shook it.