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A Long time ago there was an old man who would sit by the fire every night.  He would sit by the window and look longingly at the lake that was in his backyard.  This man would look out at the lake and think about the many trips he took on his ship on the sea and the oceans.  He would think back to a time when he was captain of a ship called the Pelican.  He was a very stern captain, he liked to get mad at his shipmates and tell them what to do, tell them about the chores they would have to do all day long.

One winter evening he was looking onto the lake, he started to realize it was starting to freeze over.  Sadness took over the old man, named Car the captain.  Poor old Carl thought about how this reflected on his career as a captain of the sea.  How the sea was so rough, and it took so much from him.  Now, maybe, it was his time to start to freeze over just like the lake.  He didn’t really realize how frozen it was

till he saw a young child walking toward the lake with skates.  He sat down beside the lake, put on his skates, and began skating right across. Well Carl immediately got really upset, and ran outside to make sure the little boy was okay.  The little boy started laughing and said, “I’m out here all the time lately.”  Carl said, “How long has the lake been frozen?”  The little boy said. “For months!”  Then Carl realized, “I haven’t been outside in a really long time.”  The little boy looked at him and winked.  Carl realized that this boy looked familiar, too familiar.

Carl wondered where the missing months had went.  He puzzled over the mystery of the boy, and he puzzled over the missing months as he threw another log on the fire.  It was cold, cold enough to freeze the lake solid.  He though about the boy and he let his mind drift back to his days upon the sea and realized…

As he thought back on his time on the high seas, and he’d remembered where he had seen the boy previously.  It was the son of the bartender from his ship.  For he was a captain of a Caribbean cruise.  It was a happy cruise, a calypso cruise, but he was known as the harsh calypso captain. As he thought more and more he remembered why the boy had such an impact on his life.  The first time he set eyes on this boy, the boy smiled at him and his sternness had to give way, and he actually smiled back. This was big news in Caribbean cruise community because his heart had opened up to somebody and he smiled for the first, and only, time.

One evening Carl went out to the frozen lake, and the little boy was out skating, and he told the little boy, “I’ve met you before.”  It sounded a lot scarier when he said it, because Carl was a really angry captain, just sayin’.  The Little boy laughed and said, “I know.” Carl said, “I just can’t remember your name.” The little boy goes, “Oh, it’s the same as my mom’s.”  Carl was, “Your name is the same as your mom’s?”  The boy said, “Yes, you worked with her on the Caribbean cruise.  I’m sure you remember her name, she talks about you all the time.”  The captain got very confused and very upset and embarrassed that he didn’t remember her name.  So immediately he said, “Well, yes, why don’t you come in for some hot chocolate.”  He thought he could buy some time with the little boy, and maybe the little boy would slip and say his mother’s name so he could remember his mother’s name.

So the little boy and Carl walked back to Carl’s house.  He put another log on the fire, and put on a kettle to make some hot chocolate.  The little boy sat there and looked at what Carl looked at every day, the frozen lake.  He turned to Carl and said, “Why didn’t you go skating?” Carl said, “Well I don’t know how.”  So the little boy said, “Well I could teach you one day.”  Carl said, “That might be nice.” He still had no idea what the kid’s name was. So the evening grew later and later and the boy said it was probably time that he went home.  So he walked back out into the snow, put his skates back on, and walked back onto the ice.  Carl went back to whatever he was doing earlier in the evening.  Then he heard a scream!  He looked out the window but couldn’t see the little boy at all, and there was a hole in the ice.

He was frantic, he didn’t know what to do.  He wasn’t used to cold water, he was used to the Caribbean.  He grabbed the first thing he could see, his fishing rod, and he went running out to the ice lake.  He cast his line.  Alas, it did not fall into the water because the ice had frozen over already.  It was a very very cold day.  So Carl decided that this was the time, this was the place for him to be the hero that he always wanted to be.  He dove into that water, and discovered how shallow it actually was.  He grabbed the boy and pulled him out from underneath the ice. They stood there starring at each other, Carl with his fishing rod and the boy with one skate on, because he had taken the other one off to try to cut his way free.  He starred at the boy, and the boy starred back.  Carl was sadend for a moment.  He looked at the boy and said, “Well, I feel that we know each other pretty well now, but I’m embarrassed to say I don’t know your mother’s name.”  The boy said, “That’s okay, it’s been a long time.”  He introduced himself to Carl, he said, “Hi, my name is…”

 “Isis.”  Carl thought, “Isis!  I do remember her from the cruise ship!”  For Carl was in love with her, and they had a magical affair somewhere around the Florida Keys.  That’s why he realized why the little boy looked so familiar to him.  It was Carl’s son who lived just across the lake his whole life.  It took that winter, to freeze over the lake, to bring them together.