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In bold: key vocabulary. Tap any word in the text to see its definition.
It was a windy afternoon at Green Lake. Nora was sitting on the dock with a book, and a few families were having picnics on the grass. She wasn't thinking about anything special. Then she heard a little voice: "Look at me! I'm sailing!"
Nora looked up. A small boy in a yellow life jacket was sitting in a kayak, and the kayak was drifting away from the shore. The wind was pushing it toward the middle of the lake. On the grass, a woman was shouting, "Theo! Theo!" She was crying. "I can't swim!"
Nora jumped up. A rental kayak was tied to the end of the dock. She put on a life jacket, grabbed a paddle, and started to paddle as hard as she could. The wind was blowing against her, and every stroke was difficult. Her arms were burning, but she didn't stop.
The boy was getting farther away. "Stay there, Theo!" Nora shouted. "Sit down and hold on!" "I'm sailing!" Theo answered, and he waved happily. A big gust of wind hit the water, and the little kayak turned around. For a moment, Nora thought the boy was going to fall in.
But he didn't fall. Nora paddled as fast as she could, and finally she touched the side of his kayak. She took the rope at the front and started to pull it back toward the shore. All the time, Theo was looking at her with big, bright eyes.
On the dock, Theo's mother hugged him so tightly that he couldn't breathe. "Thank you, thank you!" she said to Nora. Theo wasn't crying at all. "That was the best game ever," he said. "Can we do it again?" His mother didn't laugh. Nora, sitting on the dock with her wet shoes, did.
