Ha! Take that G-3, you Doubting Thomas you.

Chapter 20 - Part 1

Billy made quick time of his new morning routine including putting the dishes away from the night before and was out the door is less than 45 minutes, but nearly tripped over William sitting on his front steps. Had it not been for his youth and agility, he probably would have. William had even surprised himself with the quickness in his step when his feet hit the floor that morning at 4:30. Of course, at his age, his routine took just over an hour, but still that wasn’t bad for a man his age and he had to make breakfast for two. Even with the extra time though, he’s still been sitting on the porch for more than a half hour though. He’d listened to the birds and watched the squirrels dodge the cars and enjoyed every dang minute of it. The only unpleasantness he’d had was when his mind struggled to figure out just when exactly was the last time he’d been fishing. Was it two years or was it three? Could it have been four? He remembered it was warm, but not hot. And windy. It blew that day to beat the band. He remembered it was the last time for sure because he hadn’t caught a single fish and broke a brand new rod when his boat blew into a stump and sandwiched it between the gunnel and a limb. He still remembered how mad he was about it when he came in to the ramp and how by the time he’d backed the truck down his boat had blown sideways on the ramp and every last bad word he’d said when he went to crank the motor and set the prop down on some rip-rap and tore it to pieces. Looking back on it now, he couldn’t even remember why that made him so mad. He’d torn the prop up on that old 9.9 dozens of times. It was while the prop was at the shop that he started feeling sick, looking back on it now he thought. Of course, he had kept it to himself for too long and just kept thinking it was something that would pass. He’d made excuses to himself and then to Ann about why he didn’t seem to want to fish any more. Funny thing was, if he’d been able to keep on fishing, Ann probably never would have figured out something was wrong with him and he’d probably never had the chance to meet Billy at all.

“Mr. Baker, what are you doing out here? Is everything all right?” “Right as rain, Billy. I was just in a hurry to go fishing this morning”. “You sure you’re up to it today?” “Billy, I’ve never been so sure of anything in all my life.”. Billy’s look shifted from concern to the biggest smile William had ever seen. “Well, let’s get going then”.

William knew the spring in his step wouldn’t hold all day, so they made plans to split up and William would drive the tackle around to the little house rather than wasting the energy on the walk through the woods and Billy would get the boat and meet him on the other side. By the time William made it around, Billy was already pushing the boat into the water. He must have run the whole way to the lake, William realized and grinned to himself. The trip across the lake gave William a little time to respool his two spinning reels and rig up a couple of cork and jig rigs. He studied the water and picked out two hand tied jigs that a friend of his from West Virginia had made special for him. One color was called Pbug and the other William named Old Friend. Old Friend William had custom ordered just to his specs, Pbug was a slightly different twist on Old Friend that Jason had suggested and, to William’s surprise, would sometimes outfish Old Friend. William couldn’t think of two better ties in his box to teach this upstart a lesson he wouldn’t forget and he smirked to himself has he clipped the last tag line.

William turned his attention back to the lake and Billy coming across. He was surprised at how well he was handling that boat with the paddle, especially for someone so new at it. The boat was tracking as well as William thought he could manage and Billy wasn’t making the mistake most people do by trying to overpower the boat and get in a hurry to get where they were going. Billy was making nice smooth figure 8s and just gliding across. About two thirds of the way, Billy stopped, switched hands, and turned in his seat to finish the run with his left hand. “Yep”, Willliam thought to himself, “he still hasn’t built up the muscle yet”. That’s when the wheels came off Billy’s little bus. The boat was spinning and his figure 8’s turned in to figure 3s, 7s and William even thought figured 17s at one point. William couldn’t help but giggle a little when Billy stepped out to pull the boat up. Billy noticed, but didn’t seem to mind. “That left hand still gives me trouble, Mr. Baker” “Me too Billy, it’ll come to you with practice though. “Do you want the front or the back Mr. Baker?” “If it’s OK with you Billy, I’ll take the first turn at the front and then we’ll switch when I run out of steam.” “Sounds good to me.” Billy was always agreeable like that. As they loaded their tackle, William wondered if Billy was so confident in himself that he was agreeable or whether he was agreeable because he wasn’t confident in himself. He never really answered that question to himself, but decided that in either case, it was a quality that would serve Billy well for the rest of his life.


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