June 2, 1978

Edward Morrison was beginning to notice that it was shaping up to be an unusually cold summer. Despite the fact that it was June, he had to wear a jacket to the Kauflins' party. Edward didn't like the Kauflins much, and not just because their last name was far too similar to the Kaufmans'. They were new to the yacht club, and he didn't care for newcomers these days. Nevertheless, he came to their party, and he would drink their soda and eat their burgers. Edward wasn't the type to miss out on a good yacht club party.

When Edward and his family arrived at the Kauflins' house, Phil and Holly immediately ran into the sandbox, where several other kids in the yacht club were already playing. Edward and Lorraine found a table next to the sandbox, where they could watch the children play.

"Edward, what's wrong?" Lorraine asked. "You seem a little surly today."

"I'm fine," Edward insisted.

"Okay," Lorraine said. She moved her chair so that she was next to Edward, and then held his hand as the two of them watched their children.

Phil, of course, had found Theo Reinhart, and the two of them were working on building a sandcastle. Phil had become quite close to Theo lately, and although Edward was never friends with Theo's parents, he didn't mind their son. Somehow, Gary's abrasiveness and Margaret's pettiness had evened each other out, and they had produced a good-natured little boy. Holly, on the other hand, was playing by herself, running a toy truck through a pile of sand. She didn't seem to mind that she was alone, a feeling that Edward could relate to. Sometimes, the world was just too much for him.

Edward looked away from the children and toward the lake. Clearwater Lake was far from clear now. In fact, sometimes it looked more like a pile of green-brown paint than a lake, but everyone, with the possible exception of the children in the sandbox, knew that it wasn't always that way. As much as saying it made him sound like an old man, Edward remembered how he could see his toes at the bottom of the lake when he was Phil and Holly's age. He couldn't say for sure what had happened, but the effects were as clear as the lake once was.

A few other people ended up sitting down at Edward's table, much to his annoyance. Gary and Margaret sat at Edward's table to keep an eye on their son, and Gary's parents soon joined them. Dennis Ogden sat down next to Edward, which he didn't mind so much, since Dennis and his parents were three of the handful of people who never seemed to judge him for needing to use a cane even though he was only thirty four. Edward didn't like to feel bad for himself about it, but it did make it harder for him to fit in with the rest of the yacht club. Finally, Stuart Hardy took the last spot at the table, and Edward's spot to be alone with Lorraine was completely compromised.

"Lorraine, can you watch the kids for a moment?" Edward asked. "I'm going to go get some food."

"Yes, that's fine," Lorraine said. "Could you get me a hamburger while you're up?"

"Anything for you, my love," Edward said. He left the table and when he got to the food table, he took two plates and filled them with burgers, potato salad, and cookies. He then returned to Lorraine and handed her one of the plates.

"Thanks, Edward," Lorraine said as she took a bite of her burger.

"You're welcome," Edward said. He sat down and glanced towards the sandbox again. Phil and Theo had joined a group of older boys who were playing volleyball, and Holly was now running around in the lake. "Holly!" Edward shouted, but she wasn't paying any attention. "HOLLY!" Edward's daughter still wasn't responding. He set his plate down, grabbed his cane, and hobbled toward the shore.

"Hi Dad!" Holly said, smiling.

"You know better than this," Edward said.

"I wanted to go swimming," Holly said.

"The water's not good enough to swim in," Edward said. "If you want to go swimming, I'll take you to the pool tomorrow."

"Yeah, I want to go to the pool tomorrow," Holly said.

"Great," Edward said. He wasn't sure when he would find time, since he had plenty of things that needed to get done around the house, but he would make it work. Holly climbed out of the water, and Edward gave her a look of disgust. "Holly, you're all dirty now," he said.

Holly looked down at her now-ruined new sandals and pouted. "What are we going to do?" Holly asked, looking back at her father.

"I'm sure that we can buy you new shoes, but I don't want you to go in the lake again," Edward said.

"What about when we go sailing?" Holly asked.

Edward paused for a moment - his daughter had brought up a good point. "That's an exception," Edward said. "The water in Clearwater Lake is too dirty to go swimming in."

"I wish that it wasn't," Holly said as she followed Edward back to the sandbox.

"Me too, Holly," Edward said. By the time they arrived back at the table, Gary's mother had left to gossip with some of the other older ladies in the yacht club, so Holly had a spot next to her mother. She sat down and ate some of Lorraine's food as everyone else at the table listened to Gary and Margaret argue again.

In a desperate attempt to change the subject, Stuart asked, "Have any of you heard about the Clearwater Lake cleanup plans?"

"They're cleaning up Clearwater Lake?" Edward said.

"I haven't heard anything about this," Lorraine said.

"Me neither," Margaret said.

"I'll take that as a no," Stuart said. "Anyways, I work for the Wisconsin EPA, and we're planning to clean up the pollution in this area."

"That's good to hear," Edward said.

"The project is set to begin next month," Stuart said. "Already, we've convinced several major factories in this area to dispose of their waste water in a way that does not affect any of the local lakes and rivers, and we're making more progress every day..."

Edward wasn't really listening as Stuart's speech dissolved into jargon. However, he understood the point. Clearwater Lake would finally have a chance at becoming clear again.

"Isn't this wonderful, Edward?" Lorraine whispered to her husband.

"It is," Edward said as he took a bite of his potato salad. He would always prefer Lorraine's cooking over anything that he could get at a yacht club party, but for now, this was good enough.

"I heard something last week about making an organization right here in Clearwater Lake to make sure that the lake stays clean," Lorraine said.

"I think that Sandra Sterling is in charge of that," Margaret said.

"I'm going to go talk to her then," Lorraine said. She got up and walked over to Sandra's table, and Edward and Holly followed her.

As it turned out, Sandra was more than happy to tell the Morrisons about her new organization. "I'm thinking of calling it Keep Clearwater Clear," she said. "Would you be interested in joining?"

"I'd love to join," Lorraine said.

"Me too," Edward said.

"Me three!" Holly shouted, making everyone laugh.

"Holly, you're too young for this," Edward said, but Holly didn't seem to care.

Sandra wrote down their names and then said, "There will be a meeting next week on Tuesday. Will you be there?"

"I think that Lorraine and I can come," Edward said.

"Great," Sandra said. "I'll see you there."

"Have you heard about the Wisconsin EPA's plans to clean up Clearwater Lake?" Edward asked.

"Yes, and it's wonderful news," Sandra said. "We just have to make sure that the EPA follows through with those plans. We'll definitely address the issue at our next meeting."

Now that Edward and Lorraine were signed up to be a part of Keep Clearwater Clear, they returned to their table. Edward looked back at the lake, dreaming of how beautiful it once was and how beautiful it might become again. He could only hope that all of these efforts to clean up the lake would actually succeed. There were no guarantees in life, but Edward did think that they could at least make a little bit of progress.

The party went on, but Edward stayed in his seat, watching Phil and Theo play with the Kauflins' hammock. "Let's see if we can turn it upside down!" Phil exclaimed.

"Phil!" Edward shouted. "Did Mr. and Mrs. Kauflin say that you could do that?"

"Yeah, we already asked them, Mr. Morrison," Theo said. "Mrs. Kauflin said that we could play with her hammock as long as we didn't break it."

"Try not to break her hammock then," Edward said.

"Okay, Dad!" Phil exclaimed, and the two boys went back to trying to flip the hammock upside down. Edward rolled his eyes, but he couldn't judge them. He remembered that James Stafford had done the same thing when Edward was young, and he had accidentally ripped his family's hammock in the process. Edward had simply laughed, as he always did when it came to James' antics. He really couldn't blame his son and his best friend for their youthful nonsense.

The commodore suddenly began to speak, and Edward, of course, listened carefully to what he had to say. Edward had been the commodore a few years earlier, so he knew what it was like to have to get up in front of the whole yacht club and speak to them. Besides, he wanted to know who had won this weekend's races. Edward cheered when he heard that his Mom and Dad had placed in third. Phil had barely missed having his name announced in the junior leagues - he had placed in fifth, much to Edward's frustration. Edward was hoping to get Holly into the junior leagues this year, but he would need to get a new boat first. Hopefully, someone would be willing to sell one to him.

After the commodore's speech, the party died down. Holly seemed tired and ready to go home, but Phil clearly wanted to stay. When Edward called him, Phil pretended as if he didn't hear him. "Phil!" Edward shouted again.

"Do we have to go?" Phil asked.

"Yes," Edward answered. "Everyone else is leaving."

"I don't want to go," Phil complained.

"There are plenty of things to do at home, Phil," Edward said.

"Can we go sailing when we get home?" Phil said.

Edward laughed and said, "You went sailing this morning."

"I want to go sailing again, Dad," Phil said.

"You can go sailing next weekend, Phil," Edward said. "I don't want to set up the boat again for you today."

Phil frowned, but he said, "Okay," and the problem was settled. Phil said goodbye to Theo and then went to the car with Edward, Lorraine, and Holly. Once everyone was in the car, Edward drove home, with the two kids in the backseat singing along to the radio. Somehow, both of them had turned out to be completely tone deaf. Edward's mother was a beautiful singer, but his father didn't understand music at all, and unfortunately, the children had inherited their grandfather's genes. Edward tried to tune out his son and daughter and simply drive.

On the way home, Edward looked at the gigantic blob of greenish paint known as Clearwater Lake. Someday, it would be restored to its former splendor, but Edward wasn't sure whether that day would come sooner or later. Maybe Clearwater Lake would be beautiful again by the end of the summer, or maybe it would never look the same again while Edward was alive. There was no way to know for sure. Edward would just have to wait and see.