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     Mara sat alone, one single, solitary being, amidst trillons of the smallest grains of sand on the shore.  It was midnight and of course she was alone, surrounded by water, sand, and now and then a rock.  The waters of Lake Michigan thrashed and splashed against the sand and rocks as hot tears ran down Mara’s face.  It was the time of year she dreaded the most: fall.  The fact that summer was over, trees and flowers were dead, and not only was the weather getting worse, but so was her depression problem.  She wondered how much more she could take. The tears continued to fall.

     In the moonlight, she saw the boat. It was old and rotting from being in the water and she stared high in the weeds behind her where it was resting, and she began wondering.  She wondered about wondering as her mind was blank and it was difficult to think.   The thoughts within found it hard to spin through the cobwebs in her mind. But she kept looking at the old, rotting sailboat.

     Slowly her aching body was lifted from the sand, and she began walking to the boat, barely seeing the tiny holes that existed all aroung it.  She thought.  Maybe that would be her answer.  An answer on how to end it all, be able to stop worrying about her problems, as life was just not worth it and it wasn’t worth living.  But, her constitution was weak, and she just couldn’t perceive how to carry out a plan once it was made. 

     Slowly, she walked to the boat, softened with rotting wood, and dragged it through the sand and to the rough waters of the angry lake.  She told herself, “I won’t think about it, but I’ll just do it.”  The words were whispered to hierself as she climbed into the rickety boat, picked up the one oar that rested in it, and eased the canoe out in the murky, gray waters.

     The water seeped up through the holes in the bottom and through the oversized slivers that existed in the sides of the boat.  What a disgusting mode of transportation she had chosen.  Before she had ventured twenty feet out in the cold waters, she could see the boat filling with water, and knew that already it was beginning to sink.  “It wouldn’t be long,” she said to the howling wind and rough waters above and beneath her.