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“Bye, Dolphin!” Ben hollered after it.
“That was pretty cool, bud!”
He animatedly nodded his head. “Yeah! You should see them when we go out with Nana and Pawpaw. It’s so cool!!!”
Reaching over, I scuffled his dark hair. “I’m sure it is, buddy.”
He bit his bottom lip and furrowed his brows as he studied me. “Do you know Nana and Pawpaw?”
“Yep. I grew up with your mom, and I’d see them all the time. You’re lucky to have them.” I said it with a certain sadness, thinking about the loss of my own father recently. I closed my eyes, trying to clearly recall all the amazing memories we shared, and mourned the thought of having more children and him not being around to meet them.
It was, however, nice knowing that Ben had spent time with him over the years; even though I was a tad bitter that he knew I had a son and never said a word. The past was better staying behind us.
Getting Ben situated again, he picked up his containers, and he scrunched his face. “Mama, I don’t really want to eat these. Can I just have a cookie instead?” Boy, oh boy, did he turn up the puppy dog look.
She scolded him. “No, you know the rules, fruits and veggies before desserts.”
When he looked at me for a second opinion, I shook my head. I knew better than to overrule Annagayle. She could be fierce, and I did not want to deal with the wrath of me going against her wishes. “You heard your mom, bud.”
I knew what he’d been doing because I was the captain of pitting my parents against each other when I didn’t get the answer I wanted. I wasn’t perfect by any means.
He sighed, “Okay…” His bottom lip stuck out in protest at the answer he received, but he picked up the containers like he was told. He quickly munched everything down, and I helped him along the way, letting him get to that cookie faster. I remembered how important cookies were when I was a kid.
He looked up at me, then back at the cookie. A few seconds later, he was splitting it down the middle. “Here, since you helped me eat my apples and cucumbers. I’ll give you half my cookie.”
“Thanks, little man.”
Ben grinned; a part of the cookie in his mouth clearly not swallowed yet. The cookies were delicious, and I almost groaned as the sweet and salty taste hit my tongue. “Did you bake these, Anna?”
“Mmhmm, you like?”
“Oh, very much.” I winked, putting an incredible amount of innuendo in my comment that she laughed out loud at, literally.
“Okay… I’ve heard about this fishing set for so long that I want to see what it’s all about. Wanna do some fishing, Ben?”
He pulled his fishing set out, and I admired the bright blue color of it. It wasn’t a typical royal blue or navy blue; no, it appeared to be a sky blue. We got his pole all set up and cast out a line. “Make sure you watch the line, we don’t want fish getting away before we can see them.”
I planned on just doing a catch and release. It was only fair to the fish. We wouldn’t be out long enough to get anything, but I wanted to let him try.
Pretty soon, his bobber started wiggling and jiggling in the water. “Hey, look. Think you got a bite there? Can you reel it in yourself?”
“Uh huh!” An array of sparkling colors grew closer as we pulled it in. I couldn’t tell right off what it was, but it was definitely something big. Sliver, green, and light blue flashed right before the surface of the water. It was a distortion, making the fish look a hell of a lot bigger than it really was.
I didn’t expect to get anything, and I really hoped that he was able to pull it in, even with his smaller rod and reel. As it surfaced, it started to really twist and turn, fighting for its life now that it was caught on our line. Ben started to struggle with the weight, and I stepped in to help him out.
“Go, Dad!” He cheered me on as I continued reeling in this fish. When I first saw it in the water, I thought crappie for sure, but now that I could see it and was holding my net out, I saw that it was actually a small bluegill; it’s scales were collected in beautiful bold colors of green, light blue, and silver, with a dash of red along its bottom half.
I caught him in the net and pulled him in. “Okay, bud, we gotta take the hook out. Have you ever done that before?”
He shuffled his feet. “No, Mama says hooks are sharp, and she doesn’t want me to get hurt.”
“Well, your Mama is a pretty smart lady because they are sharp. So, how about I take out the hook, and you can watch for when you’re a little older?”
He nodded his head vigorously. Zoning in, he focused completely on everything I was doing. The first was probably only about seven or eight inches long, and, if I had to guess, weighed about six to eight ounces.
Pulling the hook out, I moved it to the side, out of reach. “You want to hold him so your Mama can take a picture of you with it for me?”
“Sure! You know this is the biggest fish ever caught, right, Mama?” He turned to look at Anna, and she appeared at a loss for words. Some days, I felt the same damn way.
