Thank you, she is mouthing at me. She then lifts her glass and her head toward the sky.

I turn back toward Cozy Cottage, my heart in my throat, and take a seat. I lean out over the Adie Lou and look at my face reflected in the water. I am smiling, tears splashing into the lake below me like a surprise thunderstorm quickly rolling by.

FORTY-THREE

“This is way too Fifty Shades of Grey for me.”

I arrived at the end of Water Street for my “official” date with Scooter, who was waiting on a bench by the channel. With a blindfold.

“Are you pushing me in? What are you doing? Where are you taking me? This is way too kinky for me.”

Scooter cocks his head at me, sighs and shrugs his shoulders.

“It’s a blindfold, but I’m beginning to think I should use it as a gag.”

I reach out to slap him on the shoulder.

“I just want it to be a surprise,” he says, a crestfallen look crossing his stubbly face. “But if you don’t want to play along...”

“No, no, no,” I say, throwing my hands in the air. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be so difficult. Do it.”

“Blindfold or gag?” Scooter asks with a laugh.

“Ha ha,” I say, as he ties the blindfold over my eyes, helps me up and then puts my hands on his shoulders.

“Follow me,” he says. “As if you have any choice.”

Scooter walks slowly down the boardwalk, which I can feel eventually transition to a sidewalk and then grass.

Without sight, I am suddenly and acutely aware of everything around me, especially the sounds and the smells.

I can hear the water rushing to my left, along with the passing of boat engines, so I know we are still walking along the channel in Saugatuck.

I can also smell the unmistakable scent of beans roasting at the local coffeehouse and the smell of burgers grilling at the Mermaid, so I know the direction we are traveling.

Finally, we slow and then stop, and Scooter eases me onto a concrete bench.

I hear the rustle of footsteps and whispers, and the sound of water slapping land.

“Why is that lady blindfolded, Mommy?” a child asks.

“I should do that to you!” I hear a man say.

“Ssshh!” their companions all whisper in the same, embarrassed tone.

There is a loud clanging of metal followed by a series of creaks, and I can feel the ground around me shaking.

Suddenly, my blindfold is off. It takes my eyes a second to adjust to the light.

“This is my surprise?” I ask at exactly the same time Scooter yells, “Surprise!”

We are sitting in front of the Saugatuck Chain Ferry, where we used to work. The metal gate to the ferry has been lifted, and visitors are flocking down the sloped wooden plank onto the little boat.