Feature image for Neck Deep

Neck Deep

A nighttime game at a Wisconsin cabin becomes a memorable lesson about family adventure, quick decisions, and finding yourself neck deep.

2 min read

Photo Credit: © Can Stock Photo Inc. / PISU

I sat with my family by the bonfire at my grandpa’s cabin--a few steps from the shoreline of Turtle Lake in northern Wisconsin--and listened to the throaty serenade of hundreds of bull frogs. Above us, the moon was shrouded in clouds and the damp July air settled lower and lower.

Nobody was really talking. We all just stared into the fire and relaxed; well, that was until my brother decided it was time for one last game of tag.

“Not it,” he yelled as he took off across the lawn and disappeared into the darkness. The rest of my siblings followed suit--leaving me, the oldest and, apparently the slowest--to be “It.”