You must be precise, logical.  Proceed methodically.  There comes a point when you must, at all costs, be able to stop, reflect, really weigh up the situation.  If there is a lake in the middle of your head, a possibility that is not only plausible, but quite normal, even though it may not be asserted without qualification, then it will take you a certain amount of time to reach it.  There is no path, there never is a path, and, near the lakeside, you’ll have to be careful of the tall grass which is always dangerous at this time of the year.  There won’t be a rowing boat either, naturally, there hardly ever is, but you can swim across. 

See: 

Leaving Small’s Hotel: 
• There, in front of me, not more than a few yards away, was a young man in a rowboat, staring at me. 
• I stood at the wheel of the leaking launch .?.?. 
• We used to bring people from the mainland in a handsome old Chris-Craft runabout. 
• the rowboat and three of the catboats leak — a little — not too much 
• the launch leaks, and before I leave the dock in it I like to pump it dry so that I’ve got a better chance of staying afloat for the duration of my journey 

Where Do You Stop?: 
• 244  windflowers 
• 419  A couple of the Small’s Hotel rowboats were tied up there, and I, a man in the middle of his life, no longer young, decided that it would be nice to row a boat across the bay to Small’s. 
Reservations Recommended: 
• 169  Like a man in a rowboat who meant to row across a bay but finds himself exhausted in the middle, he let himself drift. 
• 376  We’ve been rowing the damned rowboat of life for a long time 
Little Follies: 
• 477  I’m in this rowboat, and I’m rowing like blazes, but I’m not getting anywhere. 
• 577 After a number of mishaps and close calls, Hapless, in his chubby-man incarnation, found himself in a rowboat, rowing across a gray bay. 
• 582  it would be nice to row a boat across a bay 
• 584  in a way, we’re all like the man in the rowboat ? 
• 878  And what about that rowboat, that sunken rowboat at the end of the dilapidated dock? 
• 907  since there was a rowboat handy, I stepped into it 
• 981  My friends would be happy to be in a Larry Peters story 
Herb ’n’Lorna: 
• 69  a ride in a rowboat 
• 267  rocking rowboat, rocking, rocking, beneath their tentative caresses 
• 455  The tune and the firelight gave the room the erotic buoyancy of a rowboat on Lake Serenity. 

I should like to see the custom introduced of readers who are pleased with a book sending the author some small cash token: anything between half-a-crown and a hundred pounds.  Authors would then receive what their publishers give them as a flat rate and their “tips” from grateful readers in addition, in the same way that waiters receive a wage from their employers and also get what the customer leaves on the plate.  Not more than a few hundred pounds—that would be bad for my character—not less than half-a-crown—that would do no good to yours.

Copyright © 1996, 1997, 2001 by Eric Kraft

A Topical Guide to the Complete Peter Leroy (so far) is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, dialogues, settings, and businesses portrayed in it are products of the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. 

All rights reserved. No part of this guide may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author. 

Portions of A Topical Guide to the Complete Peter Leroy (so far) were first published by Voyager, Inc., as part of The Complete Peter Leroy (so far).