Daddy and Me
By Ann Miner, High Desert Branch
It was a cool, crisp fall morning, before dawn. I slithered out of my cozy sleeping bag, plucked my clothes from the wooden rocker, and scurried over the cold, bare floor into the living room of the old cabin. The warmth of the roaring fire in the large rock fireplace caressed my skin as I pulled jeans up over long johns, and tugged hiking boots on over thick, wool socks. The aroma of sizzling bacon and sweet pancakes cooking on the wood-burning stove in the kitchen promised a favorite breakfast. But it would have to
wait. Daddy and I were going to the duck blind!
I was a blonde, curly-headed seven-year-old girl, and I was very excited on this special morning. We bundled up in snug woolen jackets and descended the stone steps of the Upper Cabin of Kiowa Lake. Down the grassy hillside we hiked, in the gray-blue pre-dawn mist. Daddy carried a thermos of hot chocolate and held onto my mitten-covered hand.
At the bottom of the hill, we came to a remote inlet of the large lake, where we spotted the duck blind, surrounded by tall, elegant cattails, their fuzzy brown heads gently moving in the awakening morning air. The blind was a small, wooden structure, built on stilts, and sitting low over the brownish muddy water. The old gray paint was blistered and peeling after years of exposure to the harsh Oklahoma weather. We tiptoed across the narrow, slatted landing, opened the small flap of a door and entered our tiny hideaway. Inside, we could hear the water lapping lazily against the wooden floor. The faint stench of decaying crayfish carcasses was quickly overcome by the familiar mingling smells of other water life – that fishy odor that even if you couldn’t hear the sloshing water or see the lively minnows darting through the reeds – you would realize that you were at water’s edge.
There was just enough room for the two of us – with Daddy crouching down and me standing on tiptoe – to peer out the tiny slits that afforded our clandestine view of the lake. From this vantage point, we could see any ducks that might come near.
Daddy poured steaming hot chocolate into our shared thermos cup, and we traded sips of the creamy drink while we waited silently for our first sighting.