The Rest of the Story

I own a lake. Can you imagine? I was nice about it. What is so great about having something if you cannot share it. At first, I told my family about it. They would be allowed to visit once a year. They could camp or bring an RV and enjoy life in quiet surroundings. as time went by they wanted to come more often, especially in the summer, so eventually, there would always be someone at the lake during the summertime. One day some people saw the RVs and tents and followed the road in to see what was happening. I tried to tell them that this was a private lake, but my family told me more visitors would not ruin the site. Okay, just this time. But the visitors came back the next year, only this time they brought more visitors. The third year was when things went down fast. We had a very wet winter with lots of flooding. The lake was very big and much deeper than normal. One morning very early I heard a noise, a loud noise, a persistent noise. I looked out at my lake and saw that a couple of families had come. A couple of families who had brought a ski boat and a couple of jet skis. I ran out screaming and waving but they could not hear me and thought my wave was friendly, so they waved back. The noise attracted others from the town that was only a mile away. That afternoon others came with their boats, skis, barbecues, and kids. I went inside my house to sit in a corner looking at the wall. A knock at the door. It was the local police. I was in violation of a local ordinance. If you have more than 5 people visiting a site with fresh water, you must provide a set of restrooms. The officer told me I had 2 choices, I could pay a fine and order the restrooms, or I could have him call his brother in town who could deliver the restrooms within the hour. Now I had a full recreation site with restrooms. Every day people came and went. I checked google and found my lake was on the map with ratings from 5 stars to 1 star. I read the 1-star rating, “beware, the Camp Host can be grumpy”. A couple of weeks into this chaos the inevitable happened. There was an accident. There was a group of young men who were drinking. I thought about trying to dissuade them but decided to call the police instead. They told me my lake was a private site and as such, I would be one to control any drinking that occurred. As I put down the phone I heard a loud crash in the bedroom. A ski boat had crashed into my house. The guy piloting the boat was groggy and had multiple injuries. He was drunk. As the paramedics drove away my favorite policeman (his brother the restroom man) told me I was responsible. I had not posted any ‘NO ALCOHOL ALLOWED’ signs. I would have to pay the cost of the emergency response. A few weeks later I received a letter from a lawyer. His client, the guy who crashed into my house, would sue for injuries and emotional trauma. There should have been more room between the house and the water.  I appealed for help from my family. “It’s your lake, you should have been more careful.” Then they told me they would see me that weekend. They had just bought a new RV and wanted to try it out. A year has passed. My home is mortgaged now. My Retirement account emptied. I work in town as a barista so I can eat. What money I had left over I used to buy some lumber and paint.

Nikon F4 with Voigtlander 40mm F2 Lens. Kodak TMAX 400 pushed to 1600 and developed in TMAX Developer 1:4 for 8 minutes 30 seconds.