Thread: Billy and The Kid

As promised, here ya go.


Chapter 19

By the time William made it out of the bedroom, the next morning, Ann was already busy about the house. She pecked him on the cheek, told him breakfast was on the table and flew out the house mentioning something about some errands. Typical. That was her way when she didn’t want to hear what William had to say. When the door shut behind her, he smirked a little to himself and thought ‘I’m going to miss her most of all’.

William sat down to breakfast and went over his mental checklist while he ate. There was only one more thing that needed doing over at Billy and Carol’s house and that was just blowing out the furnace and checking to make sure it was functioning properly. Luckily, the grip of the summer had already broken and the nights were growing comfortable again, so if he and Billy hurried, they’d be out of the attic before it got too uncomfortable. That would leave the meat of the day to get The Shadow up to the lake and if his strength held out, he might even wet a line today. That thought had him hurrying through his meal and getting ready to leave the house.

William closed the door leading to the garage and just like clock-work, there was Billy to meet him. “You’re looking pretty good today Mr. Baker” “Feeling it too, Billy.” Billy started in with the required story from the day before. He’d had a pretty good outing with a total of 7 and two over 10 inches. It wasn’t until they had made it up into the attic that the story came to an end. William opened the unit and inspected everything as he pointed out the purpose and function of the major components. It actually didn’t look that bad and only required a little blowing out with some canned air to clear the accumulated dust from the burners. Billy went back down and turned it on to test it and everything was working properly. By the time Billy made it back up the ladder, Mr. Baker was already buttoning it back up. “Well, that’s everything I had on my list for the house Billy, can you think of anything else we need to check on?” “No sir, nothing else comes to mind and my Mom hasn’t mentioned anything else”. “When is she supposed to be home today?” “She’ll be home a little early today. Around 4”. “Well, if we’re gonna get The Shadow up to the lake, we better get on it then”. That brought a smile to Billy’s face.

William had scouted out the area and there was some private property on the back side that had a little house on it that came within 100 yards of the shoreline. He’d asked around and gotten permission from the woman that owned it to use her gravel access to get as close as they could. He figured with as much weight removed as possible that Billy and he could either carry or drag the boat to the water and Billy could paddle back to the other side to store it on the side closest to his house. They loaded the boat and made the short haul to the little old house. It was in a lot better shape than William imagined. The woman that owned it had said it had been left to her by her mother, but she hadn’t been to it in over a year now. William had imagined it being a shack, but it was actually a nice little home in need of just a little maintenance. They were able to back the truck to the edge of the trees, but the one thing he hadn’t counted on was the fence bordering the property. They took their time and managed to clear it by using the truck bed for height and walking it over a fence post, then propping it against the post. Next they grabbed it on either side and set it on the ground. Luckily, they were only 75 yards to the water through the pines and it was mostly downhill. They made the water with no trouble and William rested while Billy made a couple of trips back for the other stuff in the truck, including his fishing gear.

William surveyed the lake. It was larger than he imagined and looked to be a good bit deeper too. There were 2 good sharp points coming down to the water than he could see and some rock as well. He figured it might be as deep as 30’ from the angles he could see. The water in front of him had 2 to 2.5’ of visibility and a good tinge to it telling him it was fairly fertile. He could see bait flicking in the cove to his right and noted a couple of birds diving a couple of times giving away it was loaded with bait. From the layout, the only wind that would give Billy any trouble was a North West wind and even then it would only make it a tough slog with the paddle and no real danger from rough water. William stood and walked to the water’s edge and turned slightly, shielded his eyes and studied the water. Billy had made the last trip and walked up beside him, catching his breath. After a bit, Billy asked him, “What are you looking at Mr. Baker?”. “Just studying the lake a little Billy. I’m letting it tell me it’s secrets.” Billy had been here plenty and the lake had never told him a thing. He studied along with Mr. Baker until he couldn’t stand it any more. “What’s it telling you?” “Plenty. First there’s a short grass growing out to about 5’. That’s going to the nursery for the baitfish and a key spawning place for the fish on this side at least. Maybe even the entire lake. Next, the lake has shad and bluegill, but it appears the bluegill aren’t all that big. You can see a few working in the grass if you’re still enough. I saw two largemouth cruising that grass too. From the water color and the presence of the grass, I’d stay away from glitter in my tubes. There’s plenty of clarity not to need it and if the water get’s much clearer than this, I’d be looking at some natural colors to try like pumpkinseed on a bright day.” Billy was at the same time impressed and mad at himself that he had only noticed about half of the things he’d mentioned. “You want to go fishing Mr. Baker”. “Billy, I sure would like to, but I think I need to call it a day and get some rest. I don’t want to push it and besides, I didn’t bring my stuff with me.
The truth was, William wanted to go fishing more than he would admit to Billy or to himself, but he was feeling tired and the prospect of having to go back to the doctor in the morning was on his mind as well. The lack of fishing gear was as good as an excuse as any else he could come up with. Besides, Ann wouldn’t be too happy with him if he stayed gone too long and came in too tired for the next day.

And a bonus for being so patient.........Total coincidence that I'm putting off trying to sleep on an industrial recliner and am bored out of my mind since all of ya'll are snuggled in with your sweet pillows and happy blankets about now dreaming of 11 pound Crappie and never ending boofays. Complete coincidence.

Chapter 20

William and Ann drove to the doctor just like most other times…..quietly. Ann chatted about the sights on the trip occasionally and William grunted a little bit. He was in a particularly bad mood on this trip, but tried to keep from taking it out on Ann as much as possible. Most of the way he tried not to think about what was coming but what he’d left behind. By his own estimate, he’d get his trips in before his strength faded and that little lake would be as good as any to make his last few trips on before he moved on to what came next.

They made their way into the reception area and back to the exam room. The day did not go as they had planned. William was shuffled from exam room, to the lab, to xray, back to the exam room then off to another lab somewhere else. By lunch time, he’d lost track of where all he’d been and where he was headed next, but he’d lost his patience with the ordeal long before that. It occurred to him around 2 o’clock that he hadn’t even seen the doctor yet and that agitated him all the more. His last scheduled stop was supposed to be back to the lab to have his lung capacity tested. Ann convinced him to keep it together for just a little bit longer. He sulled up about it, but agreed. After all, it wasn’t her fault and he was bone tired now. He wasn’t too far gone to realize part of his bad mood came from getting tired. The last test went quickly enough and they took him back to the exam room. After just a little bit, the nurse came in, fresh as a daisy, with a big smile and chipperly told them the doctor would like to see them in his office if they didn’t mind waiting just a little bit. William rolled his eyes wildly and shot a look over at Ann. Before he could speak Ann quickly said “That will be fine, dear. “ and patted William on the hand. He hated when she did that, but at the same time smiled about it realizing she always knew just how to handle him.

They were shown the way to the doctor’s office and after a just a couple of minutes, William had had enough. He was just about to let Ann know in no uncertain terms that it was time to go when the door opened and Dr. Snow walked in without saying a word and walked past them and took his seat behind the desk still studying the file he walked in with. He took his pen, signed something and set it on the desk in front of him. William squirmed and Ann sat motionless. “William, I’m sorry to put you through all of this and I’m sorry I haven’t gotten to see you until now”. “Doc, I gotta tell you, if you’d been 5 more minutes, you’d have missed us all together” Ann put her hand on Williams forearm and said “William, let the doctor speak.” William held his tongue, but set his jaw and never took his eye off the doctor. “William, the reason we asked you to come back and re-run the tests is that when we got the last results in, I was sure the lab had gotten something wrong. Today, we’ve re-run everything and I had the lab rush your results for me. Honestly, because I was mad at them for getting it wrong last time. Turns out, I was wrong. William, the cancer is completely gone.” Ann pulled her hand from William’s forearm and covered her mouth and began to tear up. “What do you mean Doc?” “I mean you’re cured William. I don’t understand it, honestly. I was looking for the worst to tell you the truth, but the results this time are the same as the last. It’s gone. Completely gone.” William looked down at his feet. The doctor launched into his spiel with the particulars of the results, but William didn’t hear a word of it. He just looked at his dusty shoes. Ann was sobbing now. William finally comprehended what the doctor said “But Doc, I’ve been getting tired easily. Matter of fact, I have to be careful how much I do in a day’s time else I’m not worth a flip the next day at all” “Yes, your iron is a good bit low. Probably as a result of the meds we’ve had you on. And your cholesterol is borderline. We’ll need to watch that in the future, but I’m going to put you an iron supplement and take you off all of your meds. In a week’s time, you’ll have your energy back. Now I want you to keep taking the aspirin and Ann you’ll need to keep him off the fried foods as much as possible, but other than that, I wish I was as healthy as you.” William put his arm around Ann. “Thank you Dr. Snow”, William managed. “Bless you”, Ann blubbered.

Dr. Snow stood up and came to Ann’s side. “Ann, he’s going to be alright.” “William, I’m going to schedule you an appointment in 6 months to have your cholesterol checked. I’ll have Stephanie call you with the date and time, but I don’t want to see you again until then. Is that OK with you?” “Oh, that will be just fine” and William smiled. “Oh and I’m going to tell Stephanie to make sure you don’t get a bill for today. I wanted to make double sure for my benefit before I told you the results and I appreciate you putting up with it. We’ll bill your insurance, but if there’s any part they don’t cover, I’ll have her write it off. I’ve got to get to my next patient, but ya’ll take your time in here.” With that, Dr. Snow extended his hand and William stood and shook it. Hard.

William sat back down next to Ann and put his arm around her again. She was coming around, but he knew she needed a little bit longer. When she’d tapered off and dug a tissue from her purse, William planted a kiss on her long and hard enough to make a teenager blush, smiled and said, “Let’s get out of here. I’ve had enough of this place”.

They didn’t talk a lot on the way home about what had just happened. The conversation flowed, but it was more about the past than the present or future. The day Susan was born. And Robert. Their honeymoon. The time William had backed into Ann’s car. That oak tree they’d planted their first year of marriage. The trip to Washington DC. They laughed, joked and kidded each other. Getting close to home, William was giggling remembering from Ann’s telling of how Susan had made that picture frame for Father’s Day that year and it struck William that he’d laughed more on this trip home than he’d laughed in the last 3 years. That struck him and he went silent thinking about it. “William, what are you going to do tomorrow?” “Well…..I don’t know. Haven’t thought about it really” “Why don’t you get up early and take Billy fishing.” William hadn’t thought of Billy since the drive to the doctor’s office. He looked over at Ann and beamed as he turned onto their street. “I think I just might do that.”

Tried to sneak them in on us huh? Late night riter.

Amazing...........

Allrighty! Ole Will gonna break out the Ranger?

Yahoooooo!!!!!!!! Even William got good news!! TY for that Wannabe!

thanks wb for taking the time while your dad is sick for writing this one.
you familly is still in my prayers

Originally Posted by feelay

Allrighty! Ole Will gonna break out the Ranger?

Hey, this ain't no FM Top 40 station and I ain't takin' requests. Pffft. What? Did ya'll just think I was gonna kill ole Will off and leave Billy blubberin' without a Crappie mentor or sump'n? Now.....what kind of fun would that be?

Suth'n. Truth is it's giving me sump'n to do. The people here are weird and smell funny. If I focus on the laptop, they think I'm working and hopefully will leave me alone.

Wannabe...