The Fisher

The little boat puttered out onto the empty lake in the silent dawn. Scott piloted the motorboat, the “Can” he called it. The metal sides of the hull reminded him of a tin can of soup.

He whistled, and the loyal Winston, his German Shepard, sat down at the hull so he could see where he was going. Not that it mattered. There was nobody else up now, and the Lac des Sables was quiet. It wouldn’t be like this for long, however; there would soon be a population of other trawlers, trying their hand at catching some dinner. In the silence, he thought back to the night before.

He and his wife Kory were up for his parents’ forty-fourth anniversary. They were going to stay for the weekend, as they did every year. This year, he had even closed the pharmacy on Monday so that they could stay up an extra night. Kory had suggested it as an idea, and he had agreed.

They had arrived around 5:30, and Kory had left Scott to bring in the bags. Winston had also helped, carrying a grocery bag in his mouth. Later, his brother Rick had arrived, his obnoxious car beeping an obnoxious melody, as he did every year, signaling his arrival. Scott’s mom, Janice, immediately ran out to greet her great son, o wondrous son, o golden child. She then brought him in to present the great Richard Lore, Esq., DA of Ottawa. He smiled modestly, but Scott knew Rick had intentionally parked his Lamborghini in the driveway beside Scott’s own Roadmaster to say “Guess who’s better!” 

At dinner (mom at one end, dad at the other, with Rich on one side and Scott and Kory on the other), Kory and Scott had announced that they were one month pregnant.

“No, no, that’s not right.” Scott said to Winston in the quiet. Kory had announced that she was pregnant, while Scott just sat limply at her side.

 

The fishing line dipped into the water. Winston sat quietly, head cocked, looking at Scott, as Scott pulled from his cooler a can of Heineken, and a Milkbone for Winston, who happily gnawed on his snack in the hull. From his vantage point on the water, he could see his parent’s house, plus three houses both ways. As he waited for a nibble, Scott looked at his parent’s house, and saw the old wooden tree house his dad had built him. It had been 1987, and Scott had been eight, while Rich (as he had wanted to be called then) was fifteen. Scott had asked for a tree house for his ninth birthday, which was in the winter. It was May. Needless to say, Scott was anxious to grow older. In hindsight, Scott thought that pretty naïve of himself, as he realized his thirty-third birthday was in six months.

When he had come home from school one day that year, his father had directed him outside into the backyard, where, in the old oak near the water, he had built for Scott a tree house. His dad had taken the day off so that he could surprise his son with an early birthday present. That night, he had a sleepover in the tree house, with his favorite comics (Superman and Spiderman) and a bulk bag of candy from Mr. Jouvier’s store in town. Scott remembered it as his happiest memory, because it was the first time he got something Rick hadn’t had before him. Everything else his mother had given him when Rick had outgrown it.

Last year, his brother had gotten some of his friends to come and inspect it. He then said, over the 43^rd anniversary dinner, that his friends said it was rotting, and that it needed to be taken down. His mom had agreed, but Scott and his dad had argued against it, stating that they would rebuild it and fix it, stating it was a part of their family history, stating that it was Scott’s childhood. Scott’s mom just shook her head, saying nothing.

 

The line seized up. Scott looked at Winston, who was waiting patiently for another Milkbone. “This is it!” He said, and Winston sat up in the boat, and looked over at where the line disappeared into the water. Scott tugged on the line, breathing hard as he struggled. When the fish emerged from the water, he found it wasn’t a fish at all " it was someone’s long lost boot, infested with algae. He found it looked like a 9-year-old’s science experiment.

Scott removed the boot from the line, and was about to throw it back into the lake, when he decided to keep it. If anyone should profit from this, it should at least be Mother Nature.

Scott thought about his life, and realized there was one moment, one moment alone, when his mother had been happy for him. It was the day he got accepted to med school. The letter had arrived in the mail, with one of those window envelopes, where the recipient’s address showed through. He had vigorously opened it, and read that he had been accepted to the McGill University in Medicine. His mother had asked what he wanted for dinner, and that she would make it. Rick was already away in Ottawa, working as an intern for some big, important law firm there.

When he didn’t become a doctor, and instead became a pharmacist, his mother hadn’t been all that pleased. His dad had to tell her that whatever he did, that was his life. A week later, Rick opened his own firm, and Scott’s mother went ballistic. Rick was officially top child, o great son, o favorite child. And he has since been sitting on that pedestal.

 

Scott trawled out on the lake for another hour and a half, picking up two trout that foolishly nabbed the bait at the end of his line. Scott still used worms for bait. No new shiny flies, just what Mother Nature herself offered to him. The first fish was almost demolished by Winston, but Scott quickly placed it in the cooler he had brought along. The second one went straight in. He gave Winston another Milkbone, and then piloted the boat back to the dock.

At the dock, Winston jumped off the boat and onto the dock, Milkbone in his mouth. Scott put the cooler on the dock, and then tied the boat off to the dock. He looked at Winston in the eyes. “We don’t want it floating away now, do we?” Winston yelped in response, dropping his Milkbone on the dock. Scott got off, and picked up the cooler. He then walked up the path to the house, Winston behind him on the narrow pebble path.

The path ran up to the back patio, where Scott opened the sliding glass door and stepped into the kitchen. Winston came through too, and Scott shut the door. He listened for footfalls upstairs. None. He looked at the clock. 6:45. Everyone was still asleep. He removed his boots and crossed the kitchen to the island. As he put down the cooler, he noticed his brother’s Blackberry had been left on and the battery had been draining all night long. He looked over at the counter, and saw the cord plugged into the wall socket. He picked up the Blackberry, and attached it to the plug. When the cord was attached, the screen lit up, revealing yesterday’s Ottawa Citizen.

“Polluski Patriarch Behind Bars.” So Rick had put another one behind bars. If he kept going, Ottawa would become a crime-free utopia. He smiled, remembering how his college English teacher had said that a utopia can never truly exist. He put the Blackberry down on the counter. He stood looking at it until the screen went black. He looked down at his feet. Winston sat looking up at him, Milkbone gone.

Scott turned to go upstairs, and saw the Lamborghini outside. The sun danced off the bright red hood. The birds were singing their chorus, while the lake’s ripples lapped on the pebbled shore. The wind rustled in the trees. And Scott stood in his parents’ kitchen.

Scott went up to his room, where Kory slept in their queen. He stepped over to his side, and removed his vest, shirt and pants, revealing his somewhat muscular physique. In his boxers and tank top, he felt somewhat exposed, but that feeling passed. He leaned over to his wife, and grazed her on the cheek with his knuckles. Kory stirred, waking up from his touch. She turned around to face Scott.

“Catch anything?”

Reviews

[TJ]

"He found it looked like a 9-year-old’s science experiment" take out the words "he found" from this sentence. They're weird and unnecessary.

A very pleasant story although it could've standed to be a bit longer. Include a few more flashbacks while he's out there so we really start to feel his resentment for his brother position as favorite. This reads more like the first part of something bigger than a complete story. Still I really enjoyed it and you did a great job with your characterizations. Your characters were very deep and realistic
Bravo