The Moore's V (19)

The Moore's V (19)

    The entire family, with no lip from Tyler Moore, were walking down 100 Oak Valley Woods Trail that cut from 100 Woods Road along 100 Oak Valley Crick and hair-pinned back to the Woods Road about three miles from where it began. The entire 100 Oak Valley Woods Trail was, from Woods Road to Woods Road, 10 miles long. 

    Henrietta had wanted to get an early start on the Trail, but everyone agreed that it would be best to wait until after lunch to head out. So, after they had finished packing away the food and utensils from their hot dog lunch, they had gone out to the Trail.

    "It's just so gorgeous!" Henrietta said as she took picture after picture with her digital camera that Stephen had bought for her last birthday.

    "That's gonna be the catchphrase of the week, isn't it?" Stephen asked and everyone laughed.

Henrietta clicked another photo of a particularly aesthetic group of trees and the family continued down the Trail. As they walked on, Stephen looked to the right and saw 100 Oak Valley Crick. There was no doubting the pristine and beautiful nature of the Crick, with its gentle and easy flow of clear, untainted water, but Stephen couldn't help but remember what he'd heard on the radio when he had been putting everything away after lunch.

    Apparently, there had been a man who'd shored up on the bank of the Crick and two boys who'd been fishing there had found his body. The radio had said that the cause of death wasn't known, but it hadn't been drowning. A continuing investigation on the cause of death would be reported throughout the week.

    "Mommy, look!" Vivi cried out, pointing down toward the Crick. 

For one horrid second, Stephen was sure he'd see her pointing at a floating body, bloated by the exposure of nature, but when he looked at where she was pointing, he saw only water.

    "Oh, wow!" Henrietta exclaimed and snapped a picture of the flowing water.

    "Can we go swimming, mommy?" Vivi asked. 

    "Actually," Tyler said. "That sounds like a good idea. I mean, it's gotta be what? In the eighties still, right? Can we?" He looked between his mother and father, just as Vivi was doing.

    "What do you think?" Henrietta asked Stephen.

Stephen Moore looked between his family and the Crick, feeling his skin crawl at the thought of his family being in the same water a dead man had been pulled out of only recently.

    "Well," he said. "Why don't we finish this trail and then see what's up afterwards?"

Everyone agreed and Stephen breathed a sigh of relief as they continued up the Trail.