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Labor Day weekend would kick off with the long-awaited triathlon Forrest either had or had not been training for extensively. This would be followed by a brunch at the club. But that was only the beginning of the festivities.
Every Labor Day weekend, members of the Lake Catherine Lake Association held a regatta.
Forrest always decked out the Chris-Craft with flags and balloons for the occasion.
This year, in addition to the Chris-Craft, he’d made the plan of launching the birchbark canoe into the lake, though to do so, he’d explained to us, would require him to attach some modifications to the canoe—some kind of outriggers—to make it steadier.
After the regatta, the Emersons would be serving food and drinks at the water for their assembled guests (many of these, no doubt). Then would come Forrest’s famous fireworks display, the plans for which had been underway since the beginning of the summer and probably even before that.
It was the first time I’d heard Prudence offer a single critical remark concerning Forrest. I might have been taken aback, but I had other things on my mind. The tournament. And the other part, going home. Wherever home was for me now. Whatever I’d find there. Nothing good, was my guess.