Anthony and His Cousin Steal a Canoe

Anthony and his cousin’s theft of a canoe begins as a headlong piece of adolescent mischief and becomes a public chase across the lake. The episode joins the lure of doing something forbidden to the physical risks and uncertain consequences of getting caught, while Anthony’s fear and excitement rise together.

The Theft and Its Immediate Risk

At the old railroad line, Anthony’s cousin leaves his bike in the bushes and studies the Léo-Lagrange recreation center below the embankment. The boathouse stands open and appears deserted. His cousin proposes taking a canoe rather than swimming across; Anthony hesitates only long enough to ask if he is sure, then follows him down the bank through brambles and weeds. He is frightened, but the fear is part of the thrill.

Inside the boathouse, the boys wait for their eyes to adjust to the darkness. Dinghies, a 420, and canoes hang from a metal rack; life jackets on their hangers give off a moldy smell. Through the open doors, the beach and sunlit lake appear beyond the damp interior. The cousin chooses a canoe, and together they unhook it and take paddles. Anthony recognizes the familiar dizzy anticipation of doing something stupid, like shoplifting at the Prisu or taking risks on a motorbike. They carry the heavy canoe toward shore, but his cousin trips on a root and the boat pitches down. Anthony’s hand catches on something sharp inside it, leaving his palm cut and bleeding.

Flight Across the Lake

Voices approach before Anthony and his cousin reach the water. They keep moving, awkwardly carrying the canoe while watching their footing, then wade in up to their waists. Anthony remembers the cigarettes and Walkman in his backpack as his cousin pushes the canoe away from shore. Two counselors and a child in a bathing suit shout after them; Anthony hauls himself aboard, his cousin gives the boat one last shove and climbs in, and the boys begin paddling as a crowd gathers on the beach. The theft has become a chase in full view of the recreation center.

The pursuers launch canoes of their own, two or three people to each boat, including adults. Anthony paddles harder than ever beneath the sun, which flashes across the dark water, while sweat runs down his face and ribs and his tank top sticks to his back. His cut palm keeps bleeding: drops fall between his feet in the shape of a Mickey Mouse head, and he brings the wound to his mouth. The physical strain and the blood make the escape feel less like a prank and more like a real danger. Anthony worries that someone may have called the police, but his cousin insists the pursuers will not follow them indefinitely and urges him to paddle.

The cousin changes course to hug the shore, aiming for Pointu Spit, the narrow strip of land dividing the lake. Rounding it should put them out of sight for a few minutes. The lake’s beaches give the flight a local geography: the boys usually go to Déchetterie Beach, said to be near a sewer outlet and consequently sparsely used even in midsummer; behind them lies the Léo-Lagrange beach, while the campground beach and American Beach mark other parts of the shore. Beyond Pointu Spit is the Sailing Club beach, described as the prettiest, with pine trees, golden sand, cabanas, and a bar. The boys’ route passes through a landscape they know, but the chase makes its familiar divisions newly consequential.

After motorbikes arrive and then drive away, leaving only a wavering echo, the cousins paddle stealthily onward. Once they round Pointu Spit, the horizon opens onto the other half of the lake and Bare-Ass Beach comes into view: gray, enclosed, inaccessible from the road, and nearly deserted. A motorboat is anchored about thirty yards offshore. The destination offers none of the hoped-for crowd or excitement, and Anthony recognizes the journey as a waste of time. Yet the boys continue toward the beach, where two very young girls sit nervously near their towels. One stands in the water and whistles loudly between her teeth toward the motorboat, without getting a response, then returns to sit close beside her friend. Anthony notices their fear; his cousin turns the observation back on him, making the cousins’ own exposure part of the encounter.

The Encounter at Bare-Ass Beach

The girls’ unanswered whistle finally brings the motorboat ashore. Its occupants are a couple: an athletic-looking man, who pulls the starter cord and steers the boat to the beach, and a woman whose blond hair catches Anthony’s attention. The man quickly asks the girls whether they are all right; they say that they are. The woman, meanwhile, watches Anthony and his cousin as if their arrival has intruded on a private space. What had looked like a deserted destination is suddenly occupied, and the boys’ illicit flight has carried them into a confrontation with witnesses.

The man steps toward the cousins, followed by the girls, and appears ready to lay down the law. Anthony notices his brand-new Nike Airs, still on his feet after he has jumped into the water. The cousin stands to face him, and Anthony stands too. Asked what they are doing there, they answer only that they are doing nothing. The episode ends with the boys exposed at the beach: their escape from the recreation center has not delivered them from scrutiny, but brought them face to face with someone demanding an explanation.

The Recreation Center and the Reversal of the Adventure

The theft unfolds against a social world that Anthony knows but does not quite belong to. The Léo-Lagrange recreation center is a place where parents leave children before school, with horseback riding and pedal boats offered as alternatives to getting into trouble in town. Its end-of-session party has its own unofficial life of concealed kissing and drinking; among the attendees, the boys who seem cool may attract a counselor, while country kids hardened by beatings are feared for what they might do if they caught someone. This mix of supervision, adolescent rule-breaking, and threat makes the open boathouse more than an easy target: it lies inside a setting whose apparent safety never fully dispels the possibility of violence.

The episode’s adventure repeatedly changes shape. What begins as a plan to take a canoe becomes a public pursuit, then a route through familiar but socially distinct beaches, and finally an uncomfortable encounter at a place the cousins expected to find nearly empty. Their arrival coincides with the girls’ failed effort to summon help, but the motorboat’s appearance does not make the cousins rescuers or settle what brought them there. Instead, the adult man’s demand for an explanation turns the boys’ mischief into a confrontation. The episode closes without resolving that confrontation, leaving the consequences suspended at the point where their private thrill meets other people’s fear and authority.