No Good Deed Goes Unpunished...

[SteveM]

I posted some pics from Maligne Lake in the photo section. Here's a little story from that trip...

Randy & I left Edmonton @ 2:45am; we really wanted to get 2 full days on the lake. A quick stop in Hinton for a hearty breakfast, & we were in the parking lot @ Maligne shortly after 7am. A couple of Randy's fishing buddies were already there, inflating there Zodiacs. After we got the canoe in the lake, Randy brought the truck & trailer back up to the lot. One of his buddies asked him if he could put his Zodiac on Randy's trailer to carry it from the lot to the launch, rather than dragging it. Being the nice guy that he is, Randy handed him his keys & said, "Give 'em back to me later; but, be careful, that's my only set of keys!" (Can ya see where this story is heading?)

Fast forward a couple hours & a bunch of trout; we cross paths with Cory (not his real name) out on the lake. Randy & I reel up our lines & head towards Cory's boat. He sees us coming & hollers, "I'll get your keys back to ya now, Randy."

Randy plans to pull up alongside & have his keys handed to him; Cory has other ideas. Neither he nor his buddy reel up, and as he gets closer, he says,"I'll slow down & toss your keys to ya, Randy..."

Randy:"Don't f***n' throw 'em!!!"

Cory:"I'll just toss 'em in the canoe..."

 

I can still see it, in slow motion- the keys tumbling end over end through the air, just out of Randy's reach. They hit the gunnel on the far side of the canoe, & for a split second I thought they might bounce into the bottom of the boat. Of course they didn't. They went into the 39 degree Fahrenheit waters of Maligne Lake. 30 feet of that water. Instinctively, Randy lunged after them, up to his shoulder. As quick as he went that way, I went the other. The gunnel on Randy's side went low enough to allow some water in; if I hadn't reacted, I'm 100% certain we would have taken a very chilly bath!

Cory:"Oh, no! I'm sorry, Randy..."

Randy didn't say a word; if you knew him, you'd realize how rare that his. After several minutes of silence, his first words to Cory were toting up the bill:"That was an expensive throw; 2 chip keys @ $140 apiece, an alarm remote, a couple more keys..."

 

He never shared this following info with Cory- at 2:45am, just as we were about to drive away from Randy's house, Randy said,"I guess I should go back in & grab my spare keys, y'know, just in case."

'Cuz ya never know, right? So, while his keys were sitting in 30 feet of icy cold water, his spare set was buttoned securely in my shirt pocket.

But, Cory didn't need to know that, did he?

 

 

[Smitty]

Boblaw:

 

Great story! Even better, the way you told it. Nice.

 

Smitty

 

P.S. Hopefully, I'll be writing a story up tonight with a happy ending; so far, not so good...

[ironfly]

Great story! At first, I condemned Cory for being stupid enough to throw keys from one boat to another. Then I remembered, years ago I was working on a highways crew. A guy asked me to toss him a hammer over a ditch...when I did the handle caught on my sleeve just enough to increase the centripetal force dramatically (at least I think that's what happened). That hammer flew straight and fast as an arrow, right at his chest. Luckily he dodged, so I get to enjoy the memory of the look on his face.

 

I'll never toss a hammer again, though. Or a beer.

[SanJuanWorm]

Haha great story.