A New Adventure part 2

The gang didn't get going until it was almost dark.
There were a lot of accusations and some heated yelling too.  Past mystery investigations hadn't really worked out, exposing the gang as charlatans with hair trigger tempers.

Finally everyone voted to go look at  "the boat with
the scary stuff in it."  No one knew if we'd
ever come back.   But we decided that if we were
ever going to have a chance to solve a mystery this cool that this boat thing, even though it could end in lameness and hurt feelings, could very well be it.

Our luck was with us, the moon was so full
and close we could see the river a long time
before it could see us.
The best part out of coming out of the woods is
trying to surprise the river! Jamie did it once...






The noise of us! We hoped that if there were
frightened spirits hovering around the boat
that we wouldn't scare them away.

You never can tell.

Finally, we saw the gnarled tree that was the
landmark of the boat - place.

Nothing in the place looked weird, but for some reason the very air had a strange "tinge"   to it.  We
talked about the weird way Mrs. Jonesy had
become after touching the boat.  If you just looked would it happen too?  Some of us heard she also wet her pants and hasn't stopped crying since.
 We all started feeling very sad and kind of wanted
to rather be home in bed than out here in the
moon-drenched dark with the stupid ghosts.

What the heck?




"But look!"  someone in the front cried out.
"It's the Boat"

 we all breathed:           "ahhhhhh"




Some of us were hanging over the bank looking down, some of us climbed down the crumbly bank to wade in the cold water just to be near  and to peer close up into it's mysteries.  Me first!

What did it all mean? it just didn't make sense.  We started getting angry; what a stupid rip-off thing this boat was after all.
We began to abuse the boat.  We hit it with sticks.  We threw mud onto the artifacts.  We spit on it.  Kicked it.  Hurled the filthiest words we ever knew.
And the boat sank, under the weight of our hatred and disappointment.  Those of us in the water got out fast.

 We all stood looking down into the water;
seeing the boat barely visible, the spindly trees
and the scuttering clouds and the moon,
 all reflected.  No one spoke.  We just watched.  We observed the passage of time.  We realized the  futility of all our future endeavors.
We encountered the End that must come to everyone.  And as we looked we sensed the power of  unspoken words, the power of being humans together.

After what seemed like years in geologic time, someone just got up and walked away.  Then another and another.



Finally we all left.
 No one really wanted to be the last one in that place with that boat submerged down below.

Was the mystery solved that night?
For us it has only deepened.

The end.