The Lady of the Lake
by
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Chapter 1
Dawnland:
An unlined asphalt strip ran due east from the state highway onto a narrow arm of gravel that reached out into Great Mashpaug Lake. At fi rst, Breezy Point Road, as it was known, sloped gently for a hundred yards between unmown fi elds, and then it crossed an abandoned railbed to level out on the natural isthmus that was as narrow as a causeway. Minutes before sunrise, the cool night air drew billows of fog from the warm lake water, obscuring vast cedar swamps and open ponds to the north and south.
By noon, the August sun would bake the tar blistering hot, but in the minutes before sunrise, fourteen-year-old Ted Samulski could walk barefoot right down the middle of the road. Slim, with sandy hair and dark brown eyes that spoke of his Middle European origins, he was dressed in the jeans, sweatshirt, and sneakers that were his uniform for the season. Except for a bathing suit and Sunday clothes, he made no wardrobe decisions between the last day of school in June and the start of the next school year in early September. At the moment, he had his arms crossed tightly over his chest and was holding a sneaker in each hand. His head was bent in concentration, and his usual energetic stride was subdued. Ted was proceeding with deliberate steps, setting one bare foot down directly in front of the other. The usual feverish fl ow of his thinking was also in check as he self-consciously rolled his gait—heel-to-toe, heel-to-toe—as if walking some imagined tightrope. He looked neither right nor left; his full attention was focused, through the soles of his feet, into the ground.
As with so many small-town kids, what he knew from school, his own reading, and—most of all—movies served only to inform him that grand and powerful events happen everywhere in the world except here in Slaterville, Massachusetts, in the summer of 1954. What he yearned for was a castle in Wales or Roman ruins to explore. What he was doing at the moment was making the best of what was at hand.
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About the Book
In the summer of 1954, fourteen-year-old Ted Samulski is yearning for the kind of adventure that movies and books seem to promise, but nothing ever happens in his hometown of Slaterville, Massachusetts. He and his friends Buzzy and Zolly head off on a camping trip to explore a remote part of Great Mashpaug Lake. They think they are alone, but their discovery of a sunken treasure reveals that someone is watching and listening. Bringing their find to the surface sets off events that launch them on a desperate run for their lives through night woods and even darker swamps. Stories both ancient and modern converge as hidden sins are revisited, old transgressions are reconciled and events from the distant past reach out to shape lives in the present.
About the Author
R. E. Braczyk graduated from Boston University and is the recipient of the Greer Prize and the Daniel Chester French Medal. He divides his time between New York City and Westport, Connecticut.