Greg Cantwell

OWP Paper #3

July 2001

Ordinary Melvin

Melvin was unusually average. He was a typical twelve-year-old boy living in a medium-sized town in a normal US state. Riding his bike and hanging out with friends were his favorite activities. On an average day in July, Melvin's life changed forever.

The weather was very strange on this particular day; a strong wind blew in from the east and there was an unusual color to the sky. On a date that usually saw bright sunshine and high temperatures, the sky was dark and ominous and Melvin wondered if it would rain. He had gotten up at the usual time and planned a day of riding his bike to the river and maybe the mall to shop for a new plastic car model kit to build over the distant winter. The unusual weather made him think about the impending doom of the cold months when his bike would sit in lonely idleness in the garage awaiting the spring rebirth.

"What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?" A few days earlier, Melvin enjoyed a Fourth of July picnic with his family and began to think about the significance of that date. Melvin could sometimes be a pretty deep thinker. Other times, the simplest thing could confuse him. On this particular day, his thinking was very clear. In spite of the impending weather, Melvin decided to bike to the river, which was about a mile from his home. After checking in with Mom and telling her where he was headed, Melvin had an uneventful ride to the water. Once there, he went to an isolated patch of riverfront and set his bike on the ground. At the water's edge, Melvin sat and contemplated what he saw and what it meant. The river was fast, but because it was wide and deep, it appeared to be moving rather slowly. He suddenly had flashbacks of a lesson in English class about an idiot or idiom or something that said, "Still waters run deep."

What a passageway this great river could be. Every time he came back, the water looked the same, but wasn't, because it was always in transit. The power of the river mesmerized Melvin and he wondered if there was a place it could take him where he could be free of his adolescent awkwardness. As Melvin stared into the deep water, he began to focus on a shiny object several feet away from the shore. The object was lighter in color than the surrounding rocks, but the movement of the river made it impossible to focus on its shape. It had a luminous quality that drew Melvin to it. He thought deeply about his options to get closer and make contact with it. Surely it was too far away and the river was moving too swiftly to allow him to wade out to the possible prize.

Melvin couldn't help himself. After removing his shoes and socks, he stepped in the deep river and before he knew what was happening, he slipped on a rock and was suddenly engulfed in water. In the surprise of the moment, he gasped in a big mouthful of water. The deceptive current quickly pulled him away from the shore and Melvin began to panic. He tried to swim, but his saturated clothes weighed him down and he rapidly tired out. Images raced through his mind: Mom, his abandoned bike, the model kit that would never be purchased or built- would never realize its full potential. The river flipped Melvin around repeatedly, but would not let him go. He tried to fight more, but he was exhausted and ready to give in to the river's power. The beast had won. She had tempted him with the possibility of treasure and drawn him in with her seductive movements and glittering dance. Where she was taking him didn't matter.

At the moment of complete surrender, Melvin's pant leg snagged on something, halting his progress down-river. He reached below the water and discovered that he was hung up on a log whose top half had been brutally drowned. Slowly, Melvin freed his pant leg while pulling himself along the partially submerged log. As he laboriously clawed his way closer to shore, he saw that the bottom third of the tree rose from the water and still clung to the shore with a labyrinth of dying roots. After some time, Melvin found himself on top of the sun-baked log portion. Completely exhausted, he lay for a long time- so long, in fact, that by the time he regained the strength to move, all of his clothes were completely dry.

Melvin walked along the shore in a contemplative daze until he found his bike at the spot where the river had drawn him in. As he rode home, he thought about the experiences of this day. He started out as an ordinary kid in an ordinary town, who almost had an ordinary death. He ended the day as an average kid with an extraordinary story to tell his friends, then children, and eventually, anyone who will listen at the old-folks home.