It’s a lot deeper off the end of the pier than I thought. It has to be close to forty feet. I keep pulling. The rope piles up on the wooden slats next to my feet. There’s resistance on the other end.

I’ve lost count of the number of attempts I’ve made. My clothes are soaked in water and sweat. The butchered head of the rake appears at the surface, covered in weeds. I cut off the wooden handle so it would sink. I haul it up onto the pier and begin sifting through the stinking, slimy tendrils. There are some flecks of mud, but most of it has come off on the rise to the surface. After I inspect each handful, I toss the weeds into the water off the side of the pier. Once I go through all the weeds I’ve pulled up, I hold up the head of the rake and inspect the teeth, praying that by some miracle, I’ve managed to snag Nicole’s ring.

Just like every previous attempt, there’s no ring.

I had hope when I first started. The guy at the hardware store helped me come up with it. I’m pretty sure he could tell I had been crying and felt bad for me. It also was apparent that he didn’t have much else to do.

I came home and found the spot on the pier where I figured I was lying down when I lost Nicole’s ring. Then, I dropped the rake into the water, let it sink to the bottom and pulled it back up. The first couple of times, it came up totally empty. I realized that I needed to literally rake the bottom. I tried again, but this time, after letting it sink to the bottom, I took a few steps down the pier, and pulled it towards me. I was rewarded by a slight resistance, and I could feel the weeds being pulled out of the mud below. The rake came up with a big clump of vegetation. I happily sat on the pier and sifted through it. It came up empty, but I believed that with everything I snagged, there was actually a chance I could hook Nicole’s ring. That kept me going for the first couple of tries, but soon, I wasn’t even pulling up weeds anymore, meaning I had raked the spot clean.

I try moving around. I throw the rake out further off the end of the pier. Maybe the tide carried the ring further out. Wait. Does a lake have tides? I’m willing to try anything, but at this point, it’s starting to feel like I’ve tried everything.