Arrowroot Cookie

By Jim Bates

Deep in the Northwoods lake country, the water glistened jewel-like under the bright sun. Waves were lapping on the shoreline bringing with them a gentle cadence to the day.

The sand on the beach was scorching hot but seven-year-old Jack didn’t mind. He sat on the shore half in and half out of the water enjoying the pleasant feeling of his butt being cold and his shoulders baking in the heat. 

He was in charge of watching over his younger brothers, five-year-old Rob and two-year-old Freddie. The three of them were playing on the beach intent on building a sandcastle.

So intent were they, that Jack never noticed Freddie toddle out onto the nearby dock. In a matter of moments, his skinny, bowed legs had given way. He stumbled and fell off into the deep water where he sank fast to the bottom of the lake.

Jack heard the splash. “Oh, no!” he yelled. 

Frantically, he ran onto the dock and looked into the water. There lying on the bottom among the weeds was Freddie. Jack wanted to jump in and save him but the water was too deep, way over his head.

“Mom!” he yelled. “Mom, come quick! Help!

His mother ran down the hill from the cabin. 

Jack pointed, “There!”

She jumped in the lake and moments later pulled Freddie to safety, holding him tightly to her chest, comforting the coughing child. He was still clutching his Arrowroot cookie.

Alone later that evening, Jack sat on the dock, bare feet dangling in the dark water. Minnows were nibbling at his toes but he didn’t notice. He was thinking the first heavy thoughts of his young life, nearly crushed by the weight of this first exposure to the minuscule distance between living and dying. Life and death. A soggy cookie clutched like a lifeline in his little brother’s frantic hand, and his older brother being unable to do anything to help.

Jim lives in a small town twenty miles west of Minneapolis, Minnesota. His stories have appeared online in CafeLit, The Writers’ Cafe Magazine, Cabinet of Heed, Paragraph Planet, Nailpolish Stories, Ariel Chart, Potato Soup Journal, Literary Yard, Spillwords and The Drabble, and in print publications: A Million Ways, Mused Literary Journal, Gleam Flash Fiction Anthology #2 and The Best of CafeLit 8. You can also check out his blog to see more: www.theviewfromlonglake.wordpress.com.