T shouldn’t have even brought it up, but it was too late now, he could see that.
Because in his mind’s eye, his boss was already jumping.
Kevin pulls over and puts it in “park” on the side of the highway. Early afternoon on a bright summer day, there isn’t much traffic.
T looks at him.
“Well?” Kevin says, “We jumpin’ or what?”
T looks out his passenger window, out over the St. Croix River, the natural border between eastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin.
The official jump into the St. Croix River – just outside of Taylor’s Falls – is on the Wisconsin side.
Their work van is now on the side of the road in Minnesota.
“It’s over there,” T offers.
“What am I, made of money?," Kevin scoffs. "They charge $3 for parking over there!”
T shrugs. “So what, we’re gonna walk?”
Kevin opens the driver’s door.
“No,” he says, grinning. “We’re gonna swim.”
And he slams the door.
The jump off the cliff at Taylor’s Falls is, according to my brother Kevin, 59 feet and four inches. You must jump at least 15 feet out and away in order to clear the granite ledge, just two feet under the water’s surface.
Kevin is a man of experience and strange nunchuk ways. I never question his sources.
Five minutes later, bare-chested, their shirts folded and placed atop their shoes, they stand on the edge of the St. Croix.
“You first,” Kevin says.
And he pushes T into the water.
In hindsight, of course, the current of the river should’ve been taken into account before getting into the water.
Because it’s hard to swim straight across a river.
The story of The Swimming is best heard from the source. It involves wild gesticulation, shivering, and a graphic description – including a fascinatingly inappropriate visual aid – regarding the surprising difference between air temperature and the temperature of a rapidly flowing river.
So we’ll skip over that.
What I know for sure is that they jumped. They swam. And they lived.
And they were much more tired on the swim back to the van than on the original trip.
But this time, they took into consideration the current.