“Well, look at that. I ain’t been here since I wuz a boy, myself. It ain’t changed much. My daddy used to bring me here.”
They parked on the little hill under some trees, grabbed their poles, and headed down to the lake.
“There’s gotta be some big fish in there.” Daniel stood on the bank, looking into the water.
“Yeah, they is. Bass and carp and catfish; some big’uns too. Daniel, I’m gonna lay back against this tree over here. Let me have that there can of worms.”
“You gonna use that new pole?”
“Yeah. Your grandpa told me I could use it today, so I’m gonna see if I can catch a big one way out there in the middle of the lake.”
“How you gonna do that, daddy? You gonna go out there in that boat?” Daniel pointed to a little wooden boat pulled up on the bank off to the right.
“Nah. This here rod and reel can throw a worm all the way out there. All I gotta do is put a worm on the hook and sling it. When the bobber goes under, I got a fish.”
“A real big one?”
“Could be. Grandpa caught some big fish out of this lake. I think I only caught brim back then. But you just wait.”
Although that blue sky and the natural beauty and peacefulness of the lake had slipped past his notice, it was nice to get away from the fields for a day. The landlord had gone to Georgia to do some business. He’d never know about this. That forty acres of cotton can take care of itself for a few days, anyhow. Daniel’s father put a couple of red wigglers on the hook and slung them out into the lake as hard as he could. The bobber went almost straight up. It landed in the water about 20 feet out. Mr. Brown needed a little casting practice.
“That ain’t the middle of the lake, daddy.” The amused look on Daniel’s young face suggested that he understood his father wasn’t too good at using a rod and reel.
“That’s exactly what I wuz trying to do. I’ll leave it there for a while and if I don’t get a bite, I’ll throw it out farther.” Mr. Brown took his pocketknife out of his old grey work pants and picked up a forked limb from nearby. He shaped it up a little bit and stabbed it into the ground, placing the end of the rod in the forks, like he’d seen his father do.
While Daniel was sitting with his little five-foot cane pole in the crook of his arm, busy putting a worm on the hook, Earnest turned away, pulled out a half-pint bottle of a pink liquid from his back pocket, unscrewed the cap, and took a big swig. He set it on the ground beside him, out of sight, and leaned back against the shade tree. If he needed more, there was another bottle in the trunk of his rattletrap of an old ‘40 Ford sedan, along with a tater sack full of empties.
After a few minutes, he had almost dozed off, jerking up and looking around for Daniel.
“How you doing over there, son?”
“Ain’t caught a thang yet.”
“Me neither. Wait a minute!” Earnest looked out and could not see his bobber. He grabbed the rod, stood up, and jerked the rod hard, stumbling backwards and almost falling.
“Son of a bitch!” The words were out before Mr. Brown had a chance to think better of it.
“What you doing, daddy?” Daniel was alarmed at seeing his father stumbling around. This wasn’t the first time he’d seen that, but he always worried about his father when he started cursing and acting funny.
“I got a fish. I think it’s a big’un.” Mr. Brown steadied himself. He reeled in fast but the closer it got to shore, the smaller the fish felt. It was just a brim, about the size they usually caught out of the river. He put it in an old brown burlap bag, closed the top and dropped it into the lake, hanging from a piece of heavy cord. Daniel stood by with a disappointed look on his face.
“Ain’t all that big.” Daniel mumbled under his breath.
Earnest put another worm on the hook and slung it back out into the lake. This time it went pretty far out there. He settled back down under the tree, patted the pocket of his blue dress shirt, pulled out his tobacco pouch, rolled a cigarette, lit it, and took a nice slow drag.
“Don’t you fall in, now.”
“I ain’t.”
Over the next hour and a half, while Daniel fished up and down the bank, Earnest caught six more fish, taking another swig from the half-pint each time. All the fish were brim. And they kept getting smaller, the last three not even big enough to keep.
“I don’t think I like this here lake. I still ain’t got a bite.” Daniel dropped his cane pole in the weeds and sat down under the shade of the tree with his father.
“Problem is, all them big’uns are right over there. Everbody knows that.” Mr. Brown pointed to the little cove across the lake where the morning sun was lighting up those trees. “If we wuz over there … we could both catch some real big fish, bigger than you ever seen.”
“Lutz go over there. I wanna catch a big’un.” Daniel jumped up with excitement, thinking about catching a real big fish, bigger than he ever seen.
“Can’t get there from here, son. Ain’t no way to get over yonder.”
“We can go in that boat.”
Earnest took another swig from his bottle, not even thinking about the fact that Daniel was looking right at him. He stood up, steadying himself against the tree, wiping his mouth with one hand, slipping the bottle into his pocket with the other.
“That ain’t our boat. It ain’t grandpa’s boat neither. Anyhow, that lake’s pretty deep and you and me both don’t know how to swim.”
“But daddy. You said we’d catch a big’un. I ain’t caught nothin.” Daniel’s eyes had welled up. Mr. Brown couldn’t stand to see Danny cry. Mama had to do all the disciplining for the family. Earnest Brown was never going to take a hickory stick to his son. But now, Danny was about to cry anyway.
“All right, son. We’ll go out in the boat. You gotta promise me to be careful. And you can’t tell your mama nothing. She’d be whupping me and you both if she knew about this.”
Daniel smiled knowingly, then said, “I’m thirsty.”
“I should’a brought a mason jar full’a water. You’ll have to wait till we get back to the house. I’ll get you a big dipper of cold well water.”
“Can I have a sip of your’s, daddy?”
“Sorry son. You ain’t tall enough to drank that stuff. Just wait till we get home.”
“Can I git a drank out of the lake?”
“Fish pee in that lake. You don’t want that. Don’t tell mama about my tall-folks water neither, okay? And don’t be saying them cuss words I said. You ain’t tall enough for that neither.”
Daniel promised. Daniel and his father had been keeping secrets from his mother as far back as he could remember. Daniel longed for the day when he’d be tall enough to do stuff too. The way it was now, he wasn’t tall enough to do hardly anything. His behind still ached whenever he remembered mama catching him in the barn practicing some of daddy’s cuss words.
They got the poles and the worms together and managed to get in the boat. Their shoes and their pants got wet, but Mr. Brown figured by the time they got home they be all dried out. He had already told Daniel to make sure he didn’t get his new jeans dirty, because his mama wouldn’t wash another load of clothes before church on Sunday morning.
The boat was old but in pretty fair shape, barely big enough for two people. Problem was, the only oar in the boat had part of the wide end broke off of it. It took a while for Mr. Brown to row across the lake to that cove, but they got there.
Danny stood up in the boat after he put a worm on the hook. He had never been in a boat before and didn’t realize how easy it was to make the boat unsteady.
“Sit back down. Don’t you never stand up in no boat. You hear me?”
Daniel sat back down. He was a little shaken, partly from the unsteadiness of the boat, and partly from hearing his father yell at him. That never happened before.
Earnest put a wad of worms on his hook and carefully threw it out into the spot he figured most likely to be hiding a big fish. Daniel was watching his bobber intently, but he got distracted when his father cast out. When Daniel looked back, his bobber was bouncing. And then it was gone. He stood up quickly, trying to pull the fish into the boat. But the boat swayed from side to side and Danny lost his balance. He let go of the pole to keep from falling in. It disappeared into the deep water.
“I lost my pole, daddy. I had a big’un but he got away. Took my pole with him.”
Mr. Brown’s voice was stern, “I thought I told you don’t never stand up in no boat.”
Earnest felt his line straightening. The bobber was on its side, moving away, slowly going under.
“Hold up. I got one too. And it’s a big’un, biggest fish in this lake, I bet.” He raised the rod and tried to reel him in but he couldn’t do it. The fish was pulling so hard that the little boat began to move, back out toward the deep waters in the middle of the lake. They were being dragged across a lake by a fish.
“Get him, daddy. Get him.” Daniel was excited, fighting the urge to stand up again. He didn’t understand the danger that was about to befall them, and neither did Mr. Brown. They both just wanted that big fish.
“Son, real slow now, come up here. We gonna switch around and I’m gonna let you hold this thang while I row us over there to the bank.” There was no way he could get a fish this big into that little boat. They had to get back on land.
That proved to be a tricky maneuver. But they somehow managed to change places without tipping over.
“Don’t drop it. Hang on tight.” Thankfully, the fishing line was heavy and grandpa had tied a good knot on the reel. The big fish had already pulled all the line out while they were changing places. And now he was pulling the boat.
Danny held on to that rod and reel with all his might. Meanwhile, Mr. Brown, with that piece of an oar, was trying his best to row back to where they started, being helped quite a bit by the fact that the fish was headed in that direction too. In a few minutes, they were almost there. But the fish suddenly had other ideas. With a wide berth, the big fish headed for the middle of the lake again, making the boat begin a turn that nobody had expected.
Daniel was struggling. “Don’t let go of that rod and reel. Your grandpa would be mad as hell if you lost it.”
“But daddy. It’s too hard. I can’t hold it.”
“Here, give me the damn thing.” He stood up without thinking, lost his balance, leaned backward, and fell overboard, capsizing the boat. Danny screamed. Earnest slashed around in the water, panicked, gasping, trying to call out to his son. The water felt like ice, dead cold.
It probably seemed like forever, but seconds later, Mr. Brown’s shoes touched ground. He instinctively stood up and was surprised to find that the water was only a little over waist deep. Danny was hanging on to the end of the upside-down boat, still screaming, calling to his father, just a few feet away.
“Hold on tight, son.” He inched his way over to the boat, fearing his next step would be into a deep drop-off. But he made it. He grabbed Danny in his arms and tried to wade back toward shore. Somehow, Danny was still holding on to the rod and reel. The fish had stopped pulling on the line. Maybe he got off.
Then came a big jerk. Mr. Brown stumbled and fell back into the water. They both went under.
Mr. Brown managed to stand back up, coughing, holding on to Danny, who was still holding on to that rod and reel for dear life.
“Let it go, son.”
“But grandpa. He’ll be mad at me. He’ll be mad as hell at me.”
“Let it go. Don’t worry about grandpa. I’ll figure something out.” The only important thing right then was to get his son back to safety.
Danny let go of the rod and reel. It sank into the water, the big fish still pulling on it. Danny put his arms around his father’s neck and hung on tight until they got back to solid ground. Holding on to his father like that, feeling him hugging Danny so tight … it felt good; but it also felt weird. The Browns weren’t a hugging family. Danny’s father had never hugged him.
Once on dry land, they sat down in the weeds near the bank. Earnest reached into his front pocket for his pouch of Prince Albert smoking tobacco. It was soaked. He cautiously reached for his back pocket. It was empty.
“There was still a good drank left in there and now it’s at the bottom of the damn lake.” He leaned back on his elbows in disgust.
“I’m sorry, daddy.”
“It ain’t your fault, son. I should’ve never let us get in that boat. Now the boat is gone and your grandpa’s new rod and reel is gone.”
“And my cane pole is gone.”
“Yeah. But don’t you worry none. I’ll get you another’n. All you need to do is just not tell mama nothing about this. Can you do that? Can you do that for me, son?”
“Yeah, daddy. I ain’t gonna tell mama if’en you don’t want me to.”
“Good. Now we will just lay here in this nice sunshine and dry off for a while, so’s I can come up with something to tell your mama and your grandpa.”
Though they were silent for a long time, in his mind, Mr. Brown was cursing himself for being so stupid to put his child in danger like that. Daniel’s thoughts were quite different. Having heard family and friends alike praise his father for being a great hero in the war, stuff he couldn’t quite understand … all he could think about was that his father had just saved his life. Danny wanted to be a hero, just like his dad.
They laid there, baking in the sun for about an hour, until it was high in the morning sky. Earnest’s handsome young face had a hard, worried look, some heavy thinking going on in that brain of his, important, long overdue thinking. Finally, his face began to soften.
He slowly stood up.
“Let’s go, Danny.”
“But I’m still wet. Mama’s gonna know something.”
“Yeah. Just forget what I said. You tell mama anything you want. I already know what I’m gonna tell her and grandpa.”
“What’s that, daddy.”
“The truth. I’m gonna tell them the truth.”
The sun was directly overhead by now. That blue sky didn’t have a cloud in it. And there wasn’t a sound to be heard from the lake or from the surrounding forest. Earnest breathed in the fresh clean air, feeling at peace for the first time since he had returned home from fighting the Germans, something he never would talk about. He placed a gentle hand on Daniel’s shoulder. The water’s surface was smooth, not a ripple, no sign of the big fish or the rod and reel … or the boat … or the struggle for life that had played out on that water, on that morning, for a father and son. They stood there together in silence, looking out at the lake, both thinking back on what had happened.
Suddenly, Danny began spitting, several times in quick succession. Then, with a face that looked like he’d bit into a green persimmon, Danny looked up at his father.
“Daddy?”
“Yeah, son?”
“I think I drank some fish pee.”