Page 93 of As a Last Resort
She turned to me, a mix of confusion and utter horror.“What?I’m not touching them!”
“We need to throw them in the live well before they die.Hurry!”I dropped to my knees, scooping up a small fish in my hands and throwing it into the live well.
She followed suit and trapped a fish with both hands, then immediately screamed and pulled her arms back.“It’s wiggling!”Her laughter cut the air like rays of sunshine.
“They’re supposed to wiggle, they’re alive.”I watched her diving and hopping around the deck, catching the pinfish and throwing them into the well.
We got most of them transferred until there was one left, and she turned to me with it cradled in her hands.
“He’s not moving.”There were tiny water wells growing in her eyes, but I couldn’t tell if she was serious or if her eyes were filled from laughing.“Should we give him a proper burial?”
I hesitated.“I’m not sure what that looks like.”
“Aren’t you supposed to kiss a fish before you throw them back?”
“I don’t think that applies to dead fish.”
“Are you sure?I feel like that would be the appropriate thing to do.”
“You want me to kiss a dead fish?”
“I mean, this was your idea.”She shrugged apologetically.
I leaned forward cringing as a smirk appeared on her lips.
“You’re serious about this?”I was about to kiss a dead fish for this woman.
“It’s the right thing to do.”She pulled her lips into a fine line, laughter about to break through.
I leaned down and just as I puckered my lips, the fish bucked out of her hands and smacked me straight across the nose before flinging itself over the side back into the ocean.
“He’s a fugitive!”She completely doubled over in laughter, holding on to her stomach with both arms.She couldn’t catch herbreath as I stood there, stunned, backhanded by a fish’s tail.Tears were streaming down her face from laughing so hard.
I didn’t want to look anywhere else.
I’d take ten fish slaps in the face every day to see her like this.
Ten speckled trout later, seven by her count alone, I pulled our boat next toSea Kingand anchored.
We caught a glimpse of Robby leaning over the back of the boat.
“Oh no.”Sam was trying not to smile.
Captain Harold walked along the railing and leaned over to us chuckling to himself.“Haven’t had one puking this much since Dolores.Turned out she was ten weeks pregnant and didn’t even know it.Wouldn’t think the same excuse applies to your boy over there, though.”
Robby heaved again.Some sea legs he had.
“Oh, look!It’s Captain Handsome!”Shirley called out from the deck of the boat, waving her hands at me like an octopus.
“Look what she got!”Gail yelled overboard pointing to Ethel as she held up a decent-sized Spanish mackerel.“Reeled it in all by herself.”
Ethel smiled proudly as Captain Harold came up behind her and gave a thumbs-up.My heart soared.All of her four-foot self was beaming.I had hoped they’d have some luck.Captain Harold had spent over fifty years on the water and tracked the fish like he was one of them.
“The bugger didn’t have a fighting chance once this little lady got her eyes on it.”
Gail had her camera out snapping away, catching every moment she could.
“I haven’t caught anything yet,” Shirley sang as she dancedaround the deck, “but Captain Harold dubbed me the official host of the boat.I’ve kept drinks filled, bellies full, and spirits up.”
