THE CAMPFIRE · ORIGINAL
The Lake Side Door
Grandpa's cabin had one rule painted on the wall. Never answer a knock from the lake side. The lake side of the cabin has no door.
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My grandpa built a cabin on a lake in northern Minnesota in 1962, with his own hands. Pine logs. One big room with a woodstove, two little bedrooms, a screened porch. The front door faces the dirt road. The back of the cabin faces the lake, about thirty feet from the water.
There's no door on the lake side. Just a solid log wall, with two windows, high up.
And on the inside of that wall, painted in red letters, in Grandpa's handwriting, there's a sign.
NEVER ANSWER A KNOCK FROM THE LAKE SIDE.
When I was a kid, I asked him about it. Every kid in the family did.
He'd just say, "Because there's no door there. So if somebody knocks, it isn't somebody."
And he'd laugh. But he never painted over it. And every summer, when he opened up the cabin, he'd touch up the red letters, carefully, with a little brush.
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