Go Fish

SUNSET LAKE

 

The sun is just setting in Lake Louise. It's reflection shimmers, turns the blue lake into a spectacular heavenly blue. Gary puts his arm around my waist as he gazes deep into the water. He shouts like a banshee when he sees a big fish moving slowly along the bottom of the lake. 'Look, look, Millie! That fish must weigh fifty pounds.' I look, see no fish and tell him so. He jumps excitedly up and down, points again and again. 'Down there. I tell you it's down there. Believe me! It's belly is almost white, its slippery, silvery. That thing is moving so slowly the bottom sand barely rises.' I move a bit closer to the water's edge where there is a large, brownish orange flat rock that looks like heaven found this picturesque spot and just dropped it here. My purse makes a less than great pillow but I use it to lie back, reach for the stars just beginning to peep thru the early night sky.

 

'Anything left in our basket?' Gary asks. 'Sure, dirty paper napkins, 2 empty cans of Millers' beer, some cookie crumbs.' 'Yow!,' yells Gary as he tells me to be careful, careful, hand him the crumbs.' 'You don't want the beer cans, Gary? There aren't any birds to feed now.' He doesn't answer, rolls up his slax, takes off his shoes and wades a few feet into the lake, puffing when his feet touch the water.  'Cold, cold as hell,' he bitches.  'Gary, hell is hot and you may find out before I do. Let's go home. Nobody even knows where we are. My mom will be worried.'

 

The stars get brighter. A shooting one makes a huge arc right above us and disappears. 'Gary, don't go in the water. Don't you notice it's getting rough?' There is no answer. I don't see him, pick up some stones and throw them as far as I can into the lake. No response.
The small emergency flashlight I always carry in my purse lights little. Its beam gets nowhere near the water's edge.

 

There is a loud splashing noise, a yell that sounds like Gary's voice, 'Help! Help! I almost have him!' Silence again. The stars are hiding now. The big yellow moon lights part of the sky and I can see a few puffs of white clouds. They come. They drift away, leaving the moon in charge.
It shines on the lake enough that I see a a bent figure that has to be Gary struggling, pushing, pulling, trying to lift something to the shore. Thanking the good lord, I grab Gary's hand and help him over to the rock we had been sitting on.

 

He has a special present for me, he says, and hands me something or other that I instantly throw on the grass. 'What the devil was that, Gary?'  It's a fin, the fin of that big fish I saw. Now do you believe me?' I shine my useless flashlight light on it. Damn if it isn't a fin, Gary? Where's the rest of the fifty pound fish?' I ask.

 

'I'm not sure, Millie, but I swear there is an alligator in the lake that maybe ate it.'