Date: Sat, 02 Sep 2006 23:56:45 -0700 From: fritz@nehalemtel.net Subject: I Love Corey, Chapter Eighty-five Hello again. What's that you say, you just had to read another disclaimer? Surely you don't expect me to believe that. I can think of many things better to do than read these silly disclaimers. In fact, I can think of few things which would be less desirable to read. You know the drill; minors shouldn't be reading this story. They are considered far too impressionable to be exposed to it. I suspect most minors would much rather be protected from things like school or chores, but instead society chooses to protect them from exploring the world of fiction. I have no explanation for that unless it is done merely to prove adults are illogical. After all, adults read all kinds of fiction for entertainment, why shouldn't kids? As I see it, anyone should be allowed to read whatever they enjoy reading. For you adults out there who think reading something like this story will put ideas in kids' heads, believe me, they already have those ideas or they wouldn't want to read a story like this. Some adults have the darndest hang-ups. They get all upset when reading about something they may very well do themselves. Now I'm not very smart so I fail to understand why writing about something is worse then doing it. After all, if we can do it why can't we write about it? Restricting our actions to only doing those things which some narrow-minded adults approve of writing about would result in the extinction of the human race. All I can say is those narrow-minded ones will probably become distraught from reading this story so I suggest they leave and save themselves such anguish. Being a proponent of free speech means I disapprove of any laws restricting it. Yet, in some areas of the world such laws do exist. If you happen to live in one of those areas be very careful when reading this story or you will find yourself in deep doo-doo with the authorities. They can make life very miserable, or in some countries can even shorten it. This story is fiction and as such none of the characters exist, nor did any of the events described take place. This story is posted for your personal enjoyment. All I ask is that you show me the usual courtesies of attributing anything quoted from it to me, and sharing any riches you might make from a commercial use of it. Once again my thanks to Don for his help in editing. I have no idea why I find it so hard to see my own mistakes, but believe me, he has no such problems. His efforts make the story much easier to read. Should you have any complaints, questions, comments, or suggestions just send them to "fritz@nehalemtel.net," and be sure to put "I Love Corey" in the subject line or you risk being deleted. If that title is too long, you can shorten it to "ILC." Actually I won't delete you personally, only your email. Still, that is a terrible thing to have happen to your email when it could have been so easily prevented. With all that said, I hope you enjoy the following chapter. Fritz **************************************************************** I Love Corey, Chapter Eighty-five If I'd thought the kids were hard to get going yesterday morning, I didn't know what hard was. Even Corey and Mark were moving like molasses in January and the rest were worse. I thought we were going to have to physically pack Kyle to the table for breakfast, but Mark finally got him moving. We were late by the time we left, but that made no difference as the Garvins were running behind schedule as well. According to Vern, Fred and Mike closely resembled Kyle, but finally we were all aboard and headed out to fish. There was little conversation amongst the boys so Vern and I got a chance to visit a little. We didn't even have to shout as the boy snores were quite soft. Once we were at the lakes I parked where there was an old road which ran right down to the water. Boys tumbled out of the vehicles and didn't argue much about carrying the chairs and other gear down to the lake. I'm not sure they were awake enough to complain about anything. There was a raw damp wind gusting and I wondered if the weather forecast had been wrong as to when the rain would start. The weatherman had said it would hold off until late afternoon, but from the feel of things he might be proven wrong. Fred and Mike decided they would fish the lower lake and after telling us they would be back by noon they jumped in the Gator and drove back down the road about three quarters of a mile. It was sure handy that Mike had a driver's license and I was eagerly anticipating when Kyle could get his. Of course every time I thought of all the advantages that would bring, I also thought of all the disadvantages which would accompany it, like spending my time worrying about was he safe or was he driving recklessly. I seemed to go from looking forward to when he got his license to fearing it. After some more discussion, the rest of us started scattering out along the shore to our chosen spots. Corey and I hiked up towards the head of the lake because that was where I would stand the best chance of catching anything with the fly rod. We were accompanied part of the way by JJ and LT who would fish a little point about halfway between where I had parked and the head of the lake. It jutted out into the lake and had a nice little eddy off the tip where I had almost always caught some nice trout. This lake was about a half mile long and while the fish probably wouldn't be as big as those we caught yesterday, it was normally loaded with rainbows in the twelve to sixteen inch range with a few bigger ones. I didn't anticipate much problem catching plenty of fish. There was a good spot for spinning tackle just below the head of the lake and I would hike a little further and fish the stream above the lake. Dog decided to stay with JJ and LT when I showed them where I thought they should fish and after that Corey and I were by ourselves. This was the first time in a long time there hadn't been other boys around and no one to bother us and it felt real good to just hold Corey's hand as we hiked along. The ground got rough so we had to quit holding hands and soon we were where I figured on fishing. Since Corey didn't have much experience I stayed to help him get started. Where the lake started there were a couple of big rocks which stuck up out of the water and I told Corey to try to cast just below them because there should be fish there. His first cast produced a strike and soon he was having fun fighting a pretty good-sized fish. A few minutes later he landed a nice rainbow of about sixteen inches and was all smiles. "You like this?" I asked. "Yeah. This is fun. I've never been fishing before yesterday and its way kewl." "How kewl?" I asked. "Like major kewl cause they're so good eatin'." "I take it you like trout," I commented. "Oh man, they taste just awesome." He was grinning from ear to ear. "Well try to catch a couple a little smaller because I brought the frying pans today and if you thought yesterday was good, wait until you have trout rolled in cornmeal and fried in bacon grease." The next cast was a little wild and he didn't come close to the area I had told him to aim for and he was about to quickly reel his line in when I told him he might just as well go ahead and see if there were any fish there. Sure enough he had a strike, but missed it. The next few casts didn't produce any action, but then he hooked another. That one was a little fish, only about seven inches, and Corey quickly reeled it in and released it. A couple more casts produced another little one which was again quickly landed and released. Then there seemed to be little action for the next twenty minutes. I was beginning to wonder if the fishing wasn't going to be as good as I'd thought when Corey hooked another one. This one was definitely bigger than the last two but not as big as the first fish. After a few minutes Corey had another nice fat rainbow about fourteen inches in length. "Just right," I commented. "I can get several of that size in the frying pan." I swear I could almost see Corey drool when I said that. Since Corey seemed to be doing pretty well I decided it was time to try my own luck so I gathered up my gear and hiked upstream a short distance. There was a bend in the stream, but I could still see Corey. I'd fished this little spot several times and had always had good luck before so it seemed like a good place to start. I guess Mr. Fly had had his fill of limbs yesterday because he was most cooperative today. He even consented to go about where I wanted him to go and on the first cast I had a strike, but I was so surprised at the cooperation of Mr. Fly that I missed it. I'd been so busy admiring my cast I forgot to fish. After that I got down to business. The next trout wasn't as lucky and a few minutes later I had a nice pan-sized rainbow. Three casts later I had another. I glanced down at Corey and could see he had one on. It looked like my earlier fears weren't justified and that fishing was going well this morning, at least for Corey and me. I hoped everyone else was doing as well as we were. I've gone fishing and spent the whole day with little to show for it. Today the fishing gods were trying to make up for all those type of days and it seemed like there were fish out there just waiting for my fly to get close enough so they could strike. I released a bunch of little ones, but every third or fourth strike was producing a keeper. I was having so much fun I didn't realize how long I'd been fishing until I had my limit and looked at my watch. I'd been gone from Corey about an hour and a half. I'd worked upstream as I fished so I could no longer see him. Since I was limited out it was time to go check on everyone. Corey had his limit as well and was in the catch and release mode. As I got close he landed a nice fifteen to sixteen incher and quickly returned it to the lake. I managed to snap a couple of pictures of him landing and then releasing the trout, but didn't get a very good picture of the fish itself. Corey was having so much fun fishing that he wasn't ready to stop. Instead he wanted to make a few more casts before we went to check on the others. Well the few casts turned into quite a few, but it was still too early to start cooking lunch and the weather looked like the rain would hold off for a few more hours, so I just stood back and snapped a picture now and then. He finally told me he was going to make his last cast and then we'd go see what the others were doing. When he did, he had a big strike. It was easy to see that this was no ordinary fish just from the way the rod doubled over. After about ten minutes he landed a big rainbow. "Aw man, I wish I could keep this one," he whined. "It's the biggest fish I ever caught." It was a nice fish. In fact it looked a little over twenty inches in length and was full bodied. A bunch of thoughts went through my mind as I watched him start to carefully remove the hook. "Well, I suppose you are going to eat at least one of your fish," I commented. I was wimping out. I knew the rules said five fish per day, not five and all you could eat. On the other hand these waters were seldom fished and there was no danger of them having a shortage of fish. It wasn't like Corey keeping one extra fish would cause anyone to go short. I knew that if I was in his place I would go ahead and release it, but I found it hard to say no to Corey. "No, that wouldn't be right." When he said those words my heart swelled with pride. I did get a couple of good pictures as he finished removing the hook and gently placed the fish back in the water and a few seconds later the fish gave a few wiggles and was gone. Corey stood and looked at the place where he had released the fish for a few seconds and then turned around with a big grin. "Man this is fun. We gotta do this some more." "Gotta, what dictionary did you get that word from?" I grinned and asked. "Maybe from the same one the Professor got Pendinkio from," he told me with a smug look on his face. Ouch! I distinctly remembered massacring the English language on that story. "Well, maybe we can overlook it this time." Somehow I was pretty confident I would lose if I carried this conversation on very far. Corey had a habit of remembering everything I said and throwing it back at me. He only did it in a playful way, but I was whipped and I knew it. It was time to change the subject and try to escape with my dignity. "So, shall we head back to the rigs and see how the rest are doing?" I asked. With that we gathered up our gear and headed back down the lake. The first group we came to was JJ and LT. LT was just landing a nice rainbow when we walked up. "How's it going guys?" I asked. "Oh man, the fishing's been great. I limited a while back and I must have released at least ten fish," JJ bubbled. "They aren't as big as yesterday's, but there sure are lots of them." "I got the biggest one," LT jumped in as he finished releasing the one he had just landed. "No you don't," JJ threw back at him. "Yes I do. Just measure it." "Hold on guys, let me take a look and decide," I broke in before it turned into an actual argument. I wasn't sure it would, but it was easier to head it off before it went too far. There I was, trying to make peace. LT's fish was the longest, but JJ's was bigger bodied. I didn't have a scale with me, so I got a stick and measured the middle of it and put one fish on each end and balanced it on the middle mark and sure enough, just like I'd thought, JJ's fish was the heavier of the two fish. "Well guys, looks like a draw to me. LT's fish is longer, but JJ's is heavier. Since I didn't hear either of you specify which criterion you were using to determine whose was bigger, I'm going to call it a draw." With that I hoped to quell any uprisings that might be brewing. "I see you have a few smaller ones too. Those are just the right size for lunch today. Get your stuff and let's go see how the others are doing." "Yeah, we kept those little ones before we knew we could catch plenty of big ones," LT answered. "How are you going to fix them today? JJ asked. "Yesterday they were awesome." While I'd already told Corey how I was going to cook the trout, I decided to play with JJ's mind a little. He was having so much fun that it just seemed like a good idea. Besides, it was pretty easy to get JJ since he frequently forgot to think before opening his mouth. "We're going to find some wild mushrooms, sometimes called toadstools, and made a stuffing for them. "But, but I thought toadstools were poison," JJ sputtered. He was falling for the bait perfectly. Now all I had to do was continue to act serious and wait and see how long it took him to catch on. "Not always," I replied. "You just have to be careful and cook them only in trout, and then for just the right amount of time. The enzymes in the trout counteract the poison, but if you cook them too long it doesn't work. Then you die." I could see Corey was having a hard time keeping a straight face, but he jumped right in. "Don't you remember that from science class JJ? Mr. Collins told us all about it." I could almost see the wheels spinning in JJ's mind as he tried to remember everything Fred Collins had said in science class. It was getting much harder to keep a straight face and the corners of Corey's mouth kept twitching up and down. Thank God LT was behind JJ so that his grin was out of sight. In fact, LT looked like he was having a hard time even standing upright and I could see his body racked as though trying to giggle, but he was managing not to make a sound. We were all ganging up on poor JJ and he was falling for it hook, line, and sinker. "But, well, well how do you know when they're cooked right?" JJ finally got out. I was having a really difficult time maintaining my composure, but I did the best I could at keeping a straight face when I replied. "You don't. That's what makes it so challenging. So far I've been pretty lucky. Only one person has had to have his stomach pumped." That was too much for Corey and he burst out laughing and LT joined him. About that time JJ figured out I was teasing him. "You're mean." He was trying to snarl, but he was having a hard time keeping from laughing himself. He knew he'd been flummoxed and would now patiently await his chance to get even. "Yup, I'm mean. Let's go see how everyone else is doing," I told him while grabbing him and giving him a noggy. After JJ got his hair straightened up and his cap back on we picked our stuff up and continued on back towards the pickup, laughing and talking about how good the fishing had been. When we got to the bank below where we had parked, Vern, Nancy, and Kath were relaxing in the camp chairs and having a cup of coffee. Vern had built a big fire and I could see three nice strings of fish so I figured they had done well. "Where's everyone else?" I asked. "Kyle, Mark, and Danny are down the lake at the big rock and Fred and Mike aren't back yet. How'd you do?" Vern answered. "A bunch of fish just couldn't stand it and jumped in my creel and filled it up," I said as I started getting trout out of it. The boys all had their catches on hooked branches stuffed through the gills and out the mouth so he could see how they had done. I had Dad's old split willow creel and the only reason I had bothered to bring it was because the case for the flies fit the bottom just perfectly. I started digging my catch out and showing everyone. I'd concentrated on frying size and had only kept one of the bigger ones, but it was a really nice one and was almost nineteen inches long and was heavy bodied. Between the fly box and the fish, the creel was full. Vern had packed the piece of crusher screen down from the pickup to put over the fire and had made a pot of coffee, so I poured myself a cup and we exchanged small talk about how the way the morning had gone. The boys found some snacks as they packed the rest of the food down and were happily gobbling them down and drinking some pop when I heard the Gator pull up and park. Fred and Mike came charging into view holding up nice strings of fish and grinning like they had just won the jackpot on the lottery. The second they saw the snacks the boys were eating, the fish were forgotten and as soon as they had their mouths full they tried to tell us how they had done. Nancy told them to quit talking with their mouths full so that slowed them down a little, but a few hasty swallows later they were in full stride telling us all about the fish they had caught and all those they had released. After listening to part of their tale of success I figured it was time to go check out the remainder of the boys. Dog decided to accompany me. I was about halfway down to the big rock when I met them headed towards me. They each had nice strings of fish and Kyle had a little blood on his forehead. Of course I had to check that out and inquired what had happened. "Mark caught me," was all Kyle said. "I didn't mean too." I looked Kyle over and there was a little place just above his right eye, almost at his hairline, which was weeping a little blood. It wasn't much of a wound, but I about panicked thinking of what could have happened had it been a couple of inches lower. Mark was clearly upset so it wouldn't do any good to scold him for being careless, and Kyle would have a little scab for a few days so I was left with not much to say. "Come on guys, as soon as we get to the rigs I'll dig a band aid out and cover it so the blood quits running down your forehead. Then you can have some of the chips before the others eat them all." Kyle didn't appear that much worse for wear, but Mark was so distraught he was almost crying. I figured I'd better have a little talk with Mark so I sent Kyle and Danny ahead. Putting my arm around Mark's shoulders I started. "What happened Mark?" "I was fishing just above this big rock and I didn't see Kyle come up behind me and I didn't mean to hurt him," Mark answered in a rush. "Had he been there all along?" "No, he and Danny was fishing on the other side and he came over to check on me and, well, I didn't know he was there, and, well, I mean-" Mark trailed off into silence. "It sounds to me as if you didn't do anything wrong. I know we kidded you yesterday about being dangerous, but everyone is pretty wild when first learning to cast. Kyle should have warned you he was back there. You never come up behind someone when he's fishing without letting him know you're there. I know I warned all you guys about that, but Kyle just forgot; now he'll probably remember a lot better. It isn't much of a wound so don't worry about it. Come on, we better hurry or all the snacks will be gone." "But, well I coulda put his eye out," Mark sputtered. "But you didn't Mark. It doesn't do any good to worry about what might have been. One of those cars we met this morning could have swerved across the road and killed us, but I'm not going to go around worrying about it or feeling bad." I pulled him into a hug. "I know you wouldn't hurt Kyle and if something happened it would be awful, but still just an accident. Sure, we need to be careful, but when someone comes up behind you without warning you, he's the one who made the mistake, not you." I patted his back a few times and then finished up with, "Come on. Like I said, the rest of them are going to have all the chips eaten if we don't hurry." Mark didn't pull away, but instead seemed to hug me tighter, so I just hugged him back and continued to pat his shoulder and back. After a couple of minutes he seemed to relax a little and start to pull away so I released him and we headed back up the trail. As we walked along I told him what a nice string of fish he had, but he didn't seem to care. He even said he didn't care if he never fished again. However, by the time we reached the fire he was starting to act a little better and soon was drinking his can of pop and munching his share of chips. Vern had gotten a band aid and put it on Kyle's forehead so that seemed taken care of and I knew that Kyle had had all his shots including his tetanus booster. When each of boys was placed with me, Children's Services had insisted on complete physicals and updating all shots. That had sounded like a good idea to me so even Corey and I had done the same. What wasn't under control was that there were fish which needed cleaning and the boys didn't seem very enthused when I suggested it. They hadn't been any better yesterday and had been pretty graphic in describing fish guts as yucky among the milder of their terms. They also used such words as gross and several I won't repeat to describe that experience, and today was like hearing it again. I had kidded them and told them they liked bloody movies, but they told me that those were fake guts and these were real. The funny thing was they had been fascinated when I was demonstrating cleaning the first fish, and fish guts didn't seem to bother them until I made them start cleaning their own fish. I guess fish guts are great as long as someone else is the one handling them. We finally got the trout all cleaned and washed out in the lake. By the time we had the fish ready for cooking Mark had cheered up a little more, but he still wasn't as bubbly as he had been earlier. If we'd been fishing for strictly pan-frying, our fish were on the large size. I like eight to ten inch trout for frying, but the boys would have been able to eat so many of that size that I would have spent the rest of the day cooking. We picked out the smallest and they ran from slightly over twelve inches to about fourteen inches. When the heads and tails were cut off and discarded, I could get several of the fish in each of my big frying pans. We wouldn't all be able to eat fish at once, but with the chicken thighs no one would starve while waiting for more fish to cook. Vern's fire had now burned down to nice pile of coals so it was time to get started even though it was a little early for lunch. The boys were always hungry so they were happy, but the adults would have just as soon waited a while longer before eating. I dumped a couple cans of pork and beans in with the ones left over from yesterday, added a dash or two of liquid smoke and a couple dashes of Tabasco and started them heating while we prepared the corn. I thought about adding some more barbecue sauce to the beans, but figured this way they would taste different than they did yesterday. We peeled the husks back on the ears of corn and removed all the silk along with part of the husks. Each ear then got a little butter smeared on it and a sprinkling of Cajun seasoning after which the remaining husk was put back in place and each ear was then wrapped in some foil making the corn ready to cook. A half hour or so over the fire should about cook it. I could have buried it in the coals and cooked it a lot faster, but that ran the risk of burning it. I checked the trout over to make sure the boys had removed all the blood vein from along the backbone as I sprinkled a little salt and pepper on the insides of each one, and I only found one which took a little more cleaning. When that was done it was time to get the cooking under way. First I raked the coals so that most of them were on one side where I would put the frying pans. Then a little wire brushing of the screen prepared a place for the chicken thighs and corn on the cooler side. After putting the corn on I got out the thighs and placed part of them among the ears. The thighs had been marinating all night in some Italian salad dressing mixed with soy sauce and a little chopped onion and garlic. Next the frying pans were placed over the coals to heat and while they were doing so I dredged the trout in a mixture of cornmeal and flour. Vern was using the tongs and turning the thighs and ears of corn to make sure nothing burned and Nancy was setting out the rest of the meal. When the frying pans were nice and hot I added enough bacon grease till I had about a quarter of an inch of it in the bottom of each pan and as soon as it was hot, in went some trout. Even though the frying pans were fourteen inches across, it was impossible to get more than three trout in either pan without crowding them. By moving the pans on and off the coals I could control the heat pretty well and soon the fish were browning nicely. About the time the first pans of fish were done, the beans were hot and the corn cooked. Vern had a big pile of chicken thighs finished and had put the second batch of them on to cook along with the last of the corn. The boys had the decency to let Nancy and Kath have first choice, but after that it was every boy for himself. Vern had just barely gotten the first loaf of garlic bread served when it was gone, along with the fish and most of the first batch of chicken thighs. I had the frying pans full of trout again and both Vern and I had hungry boys staring at us, seeming to will us on as if their looks could make things cook faster. When the second batch was finally cooked the boys left us alone for a few minutes while they ate. I knew they'd be back, but now I had a chance to get caught up on the cooking. Finally Vern and I got to eat. The corn was quite good, in fact better than I expected by quite a bit, and the rest of the meal was pretty darn good. It's hard to beat fresh trout no matter how they're cooked. I did notice that Dog didn't come and beg from either Vern or me so he must have gotten filled up from the boys. The day had gone well, but now the wind was picking up and there was the feel of rain in the air. A quick discussion and everyone decided that it would be wise to give up fishing and head home. We had plenty of fish and we could go fishing again anytime our schedules permitted so there seemed little reason to stay. We dragged the screen off the fire and started cleaning up the area. By the time the fire was drowned and the ashes raked out to make sure there were no coals left alive, the screen had cooled to where we could pack it to the pickup. Soon the area was picked up and after the rain there would be no evidence we had been here. I always tried to make sure I left no garbage in the woods, and with the boys help it didn't take long to gather it up and pack it and all the gear to the pickup. By the time we were headed back for town the wind was whipping pretty good. The rain started just as we reached the gate and it didn't take me long to jump out and get it opened and then closed after Vern and Kath drove through. Even so I was quite wet by the time I was back in the pickup. It was a typical spring rain shower, and by the time we got to town it had slacked off to a drizzle. We dropped the Garvins off, along with their fish and all their gear, and headed home. When I walked through the door the answering machine was blinking at me. I gave the boys orders to unload the back of the pickup while I checked out the answering machine. I'm glad I only have to work five days a week and not all the time like some realtors do. John called me to let me know he had just received a call from the people who owned the property behind mine accepting my offer. I was a little stunned as I had called him while sitting and waiting at the trial on Thursday. He'd told me during that call that he didn't think they would accept the offer because I was so far under their asking price, but had agreed to send them a letter with it. We chatted a couple of minutes and he said he'd run over with some papers to sign. When I hung up I had boys standing around looking at me. "Who was that?" Corey asked. "John, my realtor." "What'd he want?" "The Robinson's accepted my offer." The boys all had blank looks. I hadn't mentioned making an offer on the property and they didn't know who owned it anyway. "Who are the Robinson's?" This time it was LT who asked a question. "Boyd Robinson is the son of the lady who owned the property behind our house. When she died, he inherited it. He and his wife have been trying to sell it for a while." "Didn't you say it was too much money?" Corey asked. "Yeah, the asking price was $145,000, but I offered $95,000 and they took it. It's almost four acres and can be divided." "Wow!" JJ said. "What about the house?" "I don't really know. It's an old mobile home and was in fair shape the last time I looked at it, but no one has been living there so I don't know much about it." The boys continued peppering me with questions and I didn't have many answers. A few minutes later John drove up and we got down to business. John and the manager of the bank where I had my accounts were good friends. He called the banker and I signed a bunch of papers to start the whole process of transferring ownership. I was shocked that John would call Mr. Kelso on a Sunday, and even more shocked that a banker would okay anything on a Sunday. I was going to have to stop in and sign some more papers at the bank, but after about forty-five minutes John handed me the keys to the house. He corrected me by explaining it was a manufactured home and not a mobile home. I even got a couple minute lesson explaining the difference between the two terms and he also informed me that the power was on and had been kept on to keep it from deteriorating. He said he didn't know about the water, but with the power on we could at least look it over. Saying he had to meet another customer, he left with my check for $10,000 in his hand as a down payment while all the paperwork went through. That pretty well wiped my checking account out and I was going to have to transfer some money into it. I knew I needed to talk with my accountant to see if I should transfer enough money to pay for the property outright or if I would be better off to finance it. The whole thing had happened so fast I wasn't sure what was going on, but it looked like I was now the owner of more property, or would be as soon as all the title searches and paperwork were done. This wasn't at all like buying my present house had gone as that had taken almost a month for everything to go through to where I could move in. As soon as John left, nothing would do but the boys had to go look it over. Kath and I didn't get any say in the matter, but were dragged out the patio door and through the back yard to see what it was I had bought. Jeez, you would have thought I'd bought them a toy or something. The chatter level was way up along with their excitement level. They even had Dog excited and he was jumping around and woofing as he ran ahead of us and then dashed back. Dog had to check things out since he didn't get on this hunk of ground owing to the fence between the two pieces of property. Corey was the least excited of the boys as he had walked across the property quite a few times when his mother was still living at the apartment down the street from this place. The house, or manufactured home, was quite a bit better than I remembered. The bedrooms were small, but there were three of them. Only having one full bath would drive me nuts if there was more than one person living in the house, but I'd been twelve before the folks had done some remodeling and had the second bath put in. At least the bath had both a tub and a shower. The living room-dinning area was decent sized, but the kitchen was very small and there was a real lack of storage space everywhere. Someone, I suspect Mrs. Robinson, had had a small room built on the side which was for the washer and dryer. While I wasn't very impressed, some new carpeting and a coat of paint would make it livable. What I wasn't expecting was Kath's reaction. To hear her go on about it you would have thought that someone had just given her keys to the Taj Mahal. While I was looking at the carpet and thinking it needed replacing, she was mentally and verbally hanging pictures on the walls. When I was thinking there was hardly enough room to turn around in the kitchen, she was bubbling on about how handy everything would be and that she would only have to turn around from the sink to reach the stove. Mom's kitchen hadn't been big, but this one was tiny. There wasn't even enough cabinet space to store sufficient food for the boys for a couple of days. I gave up and went outside. At least the house sat on a block foundation, and the little unattached garage appeared in decent shape. The steps to the back door needed rebuilding and new handrails installed, but I couldn't find much else that really needed to be done outside of installing a garage door opener. That garage door must have weighed a ton judging by the amount of effort it took to open it. While I was looking around I noticed that the shrubs were in desperate need of pruning, as were the trees in the small orchard which lay between my house and this one. The ground sloped down from my property and between the slope and the orchard it pretty well obstructed being able to see either house from the other. When all the leaves were off I could just make out parts of it from my house, but as soon as spring rolled around the view between the two houses was blocked with leaves. It would be late fall before we could even see lights between them since the trees were leafed out. All the boys except Danny decided they had seen enough and headed back to our house. When I went back inside all I can say is Kath and Danny were nesting. They were talking about where to put the furniture and TV and what color the drapes should be. Kath was worried about coming up with drapes to go with the carpet which was a hideous brown shag. Well, it was mostly brown. It had some lighter sort of yellowish threads in it and the whole effect was grim. Looking closely at Danny left me with the impression that drapes were not his favorite topic of discussion, but rather that he had not been able to figure out a polite way to leave his mother and go watch televisions or play video games with the rest of the boys. The more Kath rattled on about matching the carpet, the more his eyes glazed over. I felt sorry for him, but not too sorry. It was just that I could identify with his predicament as I could remember being caught in the same position when one of my parents wanted to talk about something that bored me to tears and I was the only one handy. I decided to see if I could rescue him. "Ah Kath, we don't know for sure the deal will go through. It might be a little early to redecorate the whole place. Besides, this is only temporary while we have plans drawn and a bigger place built." "Nonsense," Kath replied. "This is plenty big. There's just Danny and me. Do you think the davenport should go against this wall or that wall?" she said while pointing at the end wall and then the side wall. I knew I should never have opened my mouth around a woman when she was in the nesting mode. Now I was going to get drawn into the whole process and I really didn't care where the davenport went. "Umm, I think I'd put it over here to help separate the dinning and living areas," I replied in answer to her question while indicating a place. "You're right, that would be perfect. How soon do you think we can get the water turned on so I can start scrubbing? I think with the davenport here, the TV should be over there, and then the chairs could go along that wall. What do you think Danny?" Danny was clearly as lost as I was. "That sounds good to me Mom," he replied in a hesitant voice. "I, ah, I need to go to the bathroom," he said and headed for the door, abandoning me to face his mother by myself. I felt like wringing his scrawny little neck because I had been going to use that excuse to escape and he beat me to it. "Well, what about the water?" Kath asked, jarring me back to reality. "Umm, well umm, it depends on how and why it's shut off. If the Robinson's shut it off I can probably turn it on. If the city shut it off it depends on how soon any of the paperwork goes through," I sputtered out. "Could you check?" Kath asked before I could continue. That sounded like an excellent idea since it would get me away from her and I wouldn't have to answer questions about decorating. "Sure, I'll do it right now," I replied heading for the door. Once outside I walked down to the street where the meter box should be. It took some searching to find it since the grass hadn't been kept mowed, but when I did and pulled the lid up I could see that it had just been turned off and didn't have a city seal which would stop me from turning the valve on. Now I was in a quandary. I didn't know if I should just turn the water on or if I would get in trouble for doing so. I stood there thinking for a few seconds and decided I'd better check. That brought up the question of who I could call that might know if it was legal. I didn't know anyone in the water department and my only contact with them was sending a check every month. That meant I had to think of someone else to call who might know what was permissible. It started drizzling again about that time so I headed back to tell Kath I needed to check and see about turning the water on and she was still going over each room, muttering to herself about how she was going to decorate. She indicated she heard me so I beat a hasty retreat to my house. I didn't know whom else to call so I called Vern. He'd lived here all his life and knew most everyone so he should have some idea. He told me to stand by for a few minutes and he would find out. It actually took longer to explain why I wanted to know than it did for him to call back and just a couple minutes later Vern was filling me in on what his friend at the water department had said. Basically I should just turn the water on and stop in at the water department office sometime within the next few weeks and get the billing information straightened out. With that bit of information I got out a Crescent wrench and put a heavier jacket on. Someone had gone to the trouble to drain all the pipes and leave the faucets on so they wouldn't freeze. That meant that when I turned the water on I had water running out of all the outdoor faucets and most of the indoor ones. Kath turned the ones in the house off and I finally found all the outdoor ones and got them shut off. The water meter's dial quit moving so it didn't appear there were any leaks. The rain had picked up again and by the time all that was finished I was on the soggy side once again. Today was not my day to stay dry. At least I had a good excuse to leave so I could go get some dry clothes and after we bled the pipes and I found the electrical panel and turned the water heater on I headed home to change. As you can guess, about the time I reached the patio it stopped raining. Had I waited a few minutes I could have stayed dry. Once I had some dry clothes on, I wimped out and decided to start dinner. A little checking with the boys and clam chowder it would be, accompanied by grilled cheese sandwiches. Since it was still slightly early I decided to do something about the stock bones and soon I had them, along with the requisite vegetables, in the oven browning while I diced bacon for the chowder. I felt guilty over abandoning Kath, but I wasn't willing to get involved in home decorating. When we'd gotten the curtains for the boys' rooms I had just taken a paint patch and had the saleslady pick out the color. She'd picked out several she thought appropriate and the boys had selected from those. The way I looked at it, as long as things didn't clash too badly that was good enough. Aunt Sandy had helped me decorate the house when I had bought it and the main rooms were still the same except for the organ in the family room and the remodeling of the kitchen. I'd been forced to make some changes in the kitchen when I had bought the big range and I'd just shoved things closer together in the family room for the organ. I felt bad that LT had given up on his organ lessons, but I couldn't say much because I'd never taken any. Maybe I ought to put the organ in storage and buy a love seat so there would be more seating because there were now five boys living with me, six if you counted Danny, and that didn't leave many places for guests to sit. Then again maybe I ought to convert the living room into a family room because it was larger. That way I could make the family room into what might be called a parlor and reserve it for more formal entertaining. Oh well, I could think about that later. Right now I needed to do something about my nicely browned stock bones. About the time I was about ready to send one of the boys down to get her, Kath came limping in. She might not be walking very well, but there was nothing wrong with her mouth. We all got to listen while she told us all about how she was going to decorate and what she needed to get. The boys, including Danny, tuned her out, but I felt obligated to listen since it was important to her. I kept trying to tell her that the house was temporary, but had little success. She kept telling me it was just the right size and how nice it would look when she was finished. According to her it just needed a little cleaning and some paint here and there. This whole thing was not going like I'd planned it in my mind. What I had planned was that if I could buy the property for a reasonable price, I would build a house for Kath and Danny just off my own property. That way it would be handy. The offer I'd made was low, and I was prepared to raise it another $10,000 and maybe even more, but the manufactured home was not something I had been taking into consideration. I considered it too small to be of any value and had planed on having it torn down. My offer had been based on the value of the property alone and was the result of two things. One, I needed more land on which to build Kath a home, and two, Uncle Matt had been after me to buy some property so as to diversify my investments a little. Even if Kath left tomorrow, the property should stop Uncle Matt from nagging me about diversifying. "What do you think about that idea Sam?" I was guilty of just what the boys were doing and had tuned her out while I thought of other things. "I missed that," I replied sheepishly. Kath glared at me and I felt like a little kid again. She had that mother's glare down perfectly. "I asked what you thought about building a path between the two houses." Kath sounded somewhat vexed which matched the look she was giving me. "Sounds good to me." I was desperately trying to dredge up some part of the conversation from the fringes of my memory. "You weren't listening to a thing I was saying!" Kath snapped at me. Some faintly heard words crept into my mind. "I don't know about gravel though, how about something like flagstone. In fact, maybe a landscape architect would be a good idea. They have all kinds of ideas and that way it would look nice and be practical. Gravel might track in." I really hopped I was right on what I remembered or I would be in even worse shape. Judy got a thoughtful look on her face. "You're right, I hadn't thought of it tracking in," Kath replied. I was thankful that I appeared to have gotten it right. Just then the phone rang rescuing me from more remodeling. Bless Uncle Matt's heart. He had called at the perfect time. I could spend the next hour or thereabouts on the phone and the boys would have to put up with all the decorating ideas. Uncle Matt and I were having our usual visit and about halfway through he asked if I was busy next weekend. I didn't know of much going on, so I said no. Before it was over it was decided they would drive down on Friday as soon as the kids were out of school. As we continued talking I suggested he keep track of the weather and if the forecast looked decent for the weekend, he and Sandy should pick up fishing licenses and we could take the boys and the giggle boxes fishing. They'd never done that before and I explained that he and Sandy could get either two or ten-day licenses and the giggle boxes were too young to need licenses. After more talking he agreed and said if the weather looked good he would purchase the licenses on the way down. I had to talk to Kristen and Kevin and I got orders to fix meatloaf for dinner Friday. Specifically they wanted it with the little carrots around it. That told me all I needed to know because the carrots meant that they wanted the vegetables cooked with the meatloaf. That would be no problem since their arrival would set dinner back far enough to make sure there was plenty of time to cook a big meat loaf. By the time I got off the phone Kath had gone back down to her new nest to look and plan and she took poor Danny with her. I decided I needed to talk with the boys and when I had them assembled I told them I wanted them to offer to help Kath clean her house up. She had been talking about scrubbing the walls and then painting and I figured that they could help with the scrubbing at least. When that was accomplished the boys took off to get back to their video games, but I managed to get Kyle aside. "Kyle, I think you need to talk with Mark a little. He feels terrible about today and even told me he doesn't want to go fishing anymore." I was exaggerating a little, but I needed to get my point across. "Well he is pretty dangerous to be around." "He's just learning and says he didn't know you were back there. Did you let him know you were behind him?" I asked. Kyle looked down. "Umm, not really." "Not really? What's that mean?" "No, it means I didn't let him know." "Do you remember Friday night when we were getting all the fishing tackle ready and I told everyone to be sure and let a person know when you came up behind that person so there weren't any accidents?" "Uh-huh." Kyle was still looking at the floor. This was the first time I'd had to correct or suggest different behavior to Kyle and I was somewhat nervous on how to proceed. He looked like he was getting very upset and I didn't want to make too big a deal of it, yet he needed to help Mark get over the incident. "Kyle, you know Mark just worships you, don't you?" I got a somewhat surprised look from Kyle. "It's true. He knows you protected him and he loves you very much and wants to be just like you. He feels horrible about what happened and thinks it's his fault when actually it was your fault for not letting him know you were coming up behind him. Perhaps when you guys go to bed, or some other time this evening, you could tell him you're sorry you forgot to warn him and it wasn't his fault that he hooked you. That would help him and mean a lot to him. Do you think you can do that?" I got another "Uh-huh" when I asked him that. When I didn't say anything more for a few seconds Kyle asked, "What are you going to do to me for fucking up?" He sounded like he was waiting for the executioner. We were sitting side by side on the sofa in the family room and I reached over with my arm and pulled him close to me. "I already did it. I explained why I thought you were wrong and what I thought you should do to correct it. As far as I'm concerned it's over." I gave a soft chuckle and added; "I will have to say if you aren't a little more careful with your language I may have to go find that bar of soap I've been threatening you with." Both Kyle and Mark had been on the receiving end of that threat many times since both had used pretty bad language when they first started living with me. Both were getting better, but still had a way to go. "You mean you aren't going to beat me?" "Kyle, I don't beat people. I try to explain and teach them. I just can't ever imagine beating any of you boys." Kyle sagged against me. He had been quite rigid, but now he was like a limp rag. "I'm sorry," he almost whispered he was speaking so softly. "You don't need to tell me you're sorry. The one you need to tell is Mark. You have nothing to be sorry over with me." We sat there for a few minutes with Kyle leaning against me. It was sometimes hard to think of him as a child because he was now almost as tall as I was and frequently acted quite mature. Yet the way he was leaning against me made me realize that sometimes he was still a boy and needed to be treated like one. It was so easy to expect him to act like a young adult, and he mostly did. Tonight he was just a little boy and needed to be loved so I just held him against me and gently rubbed his shoulder with my thumb. Besides, I was enjoying it. This was one of the few times I'd gotten a chance to show Kyle much affection. Up till now about all I'd had a chance to give him were hugs when I left in the morning. We'd been sitting there just enjoying ourselves for about ten minutes when LT stuck his head in. "Come on Kyle, let's go nuke some popcorn. You can help me pack it back." It didn't take many brains to know that the boys were going to eat popcorn and drink pop. Had it just been popcorn LT could have carried the bowl by himself. Kyle gave a little sigh and started to pull away, but before he could get up I leaned over and gave him a quick kiss on the side of his forehead and an extra shoulder squeeze. He grinned and then went to help LT. I was left hoping I'd handled that right. Kyle might have left, but Dog took his place, literally. He got up on the sofa and leaned against me. Somewhere along the way the idea that Dog needed to stay off the furniture had gone by the wayside. I was forced to conclude that I didn't have much control over Dog and he did about what he wanted. People say you have to be smarter than your pet to train it, and while Dog was pretty good about some things, staying off the furniture was not one of them. He would come when called, sit when told to sit, stay when told to stay, and didn't jump up on people so I guess I'll have to be happy with that. He was also real good when on his leash. Keeping him off the furniture might have gone better if I had a little better control over the boys, but they liked it when he joined them. Dog's favorite thing to do was to lie on the sofa between JJ and LT with his head on one boy's lap and the other boy scratching him. Dog wasn't happy when I removed his pillow (my lap) and went to check the stock. As I was adding a little more water I remembered that the Sterretts were supposed to be over for dinner on Saturday and that had totally slipped my mind when talking with Uncle Matt. Time for another phone call. Cody answered and explained his father was visiting a friend and his mother was taking a bath. The next thing I knew I was inviting the Sterretts to join us fishing if the weather was halfway decent. Cody said he'd have his mom call back in a few minutes, but from the excitement in his voice I had a hunch what the answer would be. I didn't know if Jill and Ron would want to go, but it was obvious Cody did. I debated about rescuing Danny, but I decided against it. Kath was his mother and he was going to have to deal with her himself. It was just as well I didn't go down there because I'd have met them on their way back. Danny disappeared like a card some magician might palm the second Kath turned her head and I was forced to listen to her all by myself again. Painting the walls had given way to slip covers and maybe even a new chair after a few months. She also wanted to know if I knew where she could rent a carpet-cleaning machine, which I didn't because I'd just called the carpet cleaning company when I thought mine needed cleaning. The kitchen was going to be painted yellow instead of the white it now was, and she still hadn't decided on what color for the living room or if she should get wallpaper instead. I couldn't wait for bedtime to roll around. Fortunately, the phone again rescued me. Ron thought a fishing trip was an excellent idea. Jill didn't like to fish so she wouldn't go, but he and Cody were hoping for decent weather and would be ready. I finally got a chance to explain about my guests coming and how that would interfere with our planned meeting. He said that he and Jill were still looking at web sites anytime they could get Cody away from the computer long enough to get at it, and still had a lot more to go before they were ready to discuss it so we could just push the meeting back a week or two. After I got done talking with Ron, I decided to give Vern a call and see if he wanted to join us next weekend, but he already had some plans and said he couldn't make it. When I said Fred and Mike were welcome anyway, he laughed and said the plans were to get a little work out of them and that they would not be available. Nancy had been nagging him to clean the garage and Vern told me that Fred and Mike would be busy all of next weekend helping on that project. They were not only going to clean the garage, they were going to install some more shelves so Nancy could store more "stuff," as Vern put it. Just the way he said "stuff" led me to believe he thought Nancy already had plenty of stuff and didn't need to store anymore of it. I'd just barely hung up the phone when I was again under fire from Kath. Did I know of an appliance repair service as one of the burners on the range didn't work? Rather than listen anymore I told her I would go check it out. That didn't help as she followed along behind and never missed a beat in telling me about all her plans. The stove problem was easy to figure out. I just lifted the burner out and took the other one of the same size and set it in place. When it immediately got hot it was apparent all she needed was a new element. Looking a little more closely, I could even see where the problem was on the old one. There was a discolored place on it and when you turned it over you could see a small hole in the bottom where it had burned out. I told her to take the old element downtown and show it to Jerry at the appliance store and he'd sell her a new one. I was in instant hero when I told her that it wouldn't cost much and to go ahead and pay for it out of the household account. Thank God, by the time that was finished it was about bedtime. I turned the stock off and chased kids off to bed. Then I went back and poured the stock through the strainer. In the morning I could package it and put it in the freezer, but it was still too hot to do much with. At least Kath didn't follow me into my bedroom, but turned and headed downstairs. I could tell she had a lot more plans bottled up inside, but I'd heard all of them I could stand for one day. To be continued... About the only thing to comment on is frying trout. Mom always used a mixture of two parts cornmeal and one part all-purpose flour. I have no idea where she got that from, but I remember eating fried trout that way from the time I was a little kid. They were normally fried in bacon grease, but if she was low on bacon grease she would use part butter and part vegetable oil. Since I liked them fixed that way I continue to cook them the same way, but here's the funny part. Mother never skinned or scaled the trout so we never ate the skin. I have no idea what the cornmeal-flour breading does to help since it isn't eaten, and I've thought about omitting it several times, but I always worry that the trout might not turn out quite as good so I continue fixing them that way. She always added salt and pepper to the cornmeal mixture and I don't know how that can get through the skin, but I continue to do it. I like to have a lemon wedge and put a few drops of lemon juice on the fish just after I've peeled the skin back. To cook fish, figure on ten minutes cooking time per inch of thickness. If your fish is approximately one inch thick in the thickest part, it will take about ten minutes to fry it. While I normally don't do it over a campfire, when cooking them at home I cut the trout into two pieces so I end up with a thick piece and a thin piece. I start the thicker piece cooking, and then add the thinner piece to the pan later. That way the thinner part of the fish, the part closest to the tail, doesn't become so overcooked. I'll also add that on salmon or steelhead, Mom always got steaks instead of fillets and cooked them the same way, so maybe the cornmeal flour breading was just her way of fixing fish. It's a good way to fix either salmon steaks or trout; at least it is in my opinion. I'll leave you with this thought to consider. How many things do you do certain ways because your parents did them that way? On many of the dishes I cook I do much like my mother did. I'm more adventuresome and season somewhat differently, but things like trout are fixed the same old way because I like them that way. I'm always somewhat disappointed when trout is cooked much differently than the two recipes I've given in the last two chapters. I've had some really excellent trout fixed in such things as hazelnuts, and while I liked them, to me trout should be rolled in cornmeal and fried in bacon grease. They were a treat when I was young, and still are. So quit reading the story and get out your fishing gear and go catch yourselves some trout, if possible.