Counting the skips

An original literary non-fiction-style account of watching people skim stones beside a lake.

The boy counted every contact with the water, including a final movement that his sister called sinking. She counted only the clear skips. Their father was still looking for a stone when they appealed to him. He asked whether they had agreed on the rules before beginning. They looked at each other, selected another stone and announced that this would be the first official throw.

Further along the shore, an older woman threw without counting at all. Her stones seemed to leave her hand sideways. A child beside her tried to copy the movement and sent a splash directly upwards. She did not take his next stone away to demonstrate again. Instead, she asked him to watch where her hand finished. He studied it, tried once more and smiled at two unmistakable skips.

A man near the steps was collecting flat stones in a little pile. He rejected several that appeared suitable to me. When he finally threw one, it sank. The boy who counted loudly offered him a stone from his own pile. The man accepted it without explaining why his previous choice ought to have worked.

The siblings had stopped arguing by then, although they had not stopped competing. They announced their totals more quietly and waited until the other person's stone had settled before throwing again. Their father sat on the steps with the stone he had been examining at the start. He rubbed its smooth edge with his thumb. Eventually he put it down beside his shoe and continued watching.

What do you learn about the different ways people respond to skimming stones?