Yesterday morning was routine... wake up, get ready, check the grounds, open the marina, etc.  Or, I thought it was routine. 

 Twenty yards from my front door is the boat launch.  As I walked toward the launch, I noticed a floating ice chest.  Nothing unusual, as things frequently get washed off and onto shore and sometimes just spend time floating for a while.  However, beyond the ice chest was a body.  Face down, visibly bloated, presumably male due to its size.  I really could have done the rest of my life without this.  As I walked the rock wall along the launch, I noticed the tailgate of a truck about 6 feet underwater.  Shock, fear, confusion, flight, adrenaline: they all started setting in at a pace that seemed like hours but was actually only milliseconds.

 I don't recall running to the marina, but I did.  911... we have a body floating in the lake...  All of a sudden there was acres of vehicles, people in uniform and yellow tape.  Questions were being asked by everyone to everyone and no one.  A confused jumble of when, who, how, where, etc.

As they pulled him up, rigor mortis had set in and the stiffness of his body was like a scarecrow made of concrete.  His skin no longer looked like human skin; it had an elastic look to it and was colored a shade of grey I have never seen.  His hands were like claws reaching out to grab onto anything that dare come into their reach, if only they hadn't been inoperable.  His body so bloated it looked like he was wearing a life jacket, but it was merely the expansion of death gases covered by a muscle shirt that was now three sizes too small.  Then the face... his eyes were clouded over as if he'd been a blind man all of his life.  The color of his iris was no longer identifiable but his face was.  It was Ray, one of the lonely locals who loves to fish.  The lake was once his reason to live, it is now the reason he is dead.

As mysterious as it may seem, three boats were launched over top of his truck.  Not one hit it nor did they see it.  Unless they just didn't want to get involved.  As the guy in scuba gear went under with the wrecker cable, I thought of Ray driving down just to look at the water and meditate or, do whatever it was he did when he would just sit there staring at the horizon.  That image is now forever removed from reality.  They slowly pulled the truck backward out of the water with no resistance from the lake. 

Then with a few handshakes and well-wishes for each other's wives, they were gone.  And so was Ray.