Paddling with dead catfish...
Em called me this morning to tell me that I had forgotten to mention April in my haiku report of our seven hour "epic" on the middle yesterday. Truthfully April showed up on our trip around hour six and I think at that point we were all hallucinating. So I wasn't sure there really was an April. Yes it was all a bad dream....then Em called.
April was a dead catfish that Em fished up out of the river, and plopped on the front of her Jib. Em's 8 now and when we tried to tell her April (Em named it) was just sleeping, Em said "I think April's dead." And then she said "Why is April dead?" And I wanted to say "I don't know Em, why is it taking us two days to run the Middle. Sometimes things are the way they are and...well you know the rest."
But existentialism is kind of hard to explain to an eight year old that is paddling on jelly bean fumes. So I told her April probably died in a head on fish collision of some kind. "Really?" This is when I should have showed her my crummy card trick that never works...
April paddled with us for about two miles floating in a half inch of water pooled on the front of Em's boat. And of course, April's cold dead eyes never stopped looking at me. If I paddled in front of Em...the glassy stare. If I paddled beside Em, April would float around in her pool of water and stare some more like some demon fish from "heck". (Hi Em.) At one point I even wanted to try a roll so I could be away from those eyes for just a couple of seconds. Who am I kidding? I would have wet exited and run into April's dead cousins. (cue Psycho soundrack)
Thank God for Diagonal Ledges. One second April is there staring at me like I was the only person on the Planet Earth that really liked Mrs Pauls Fishsticks, and the next second she was gone. Back to the deep. Back to her cousins....and straight into my nightmares.
I will say this. Make of it what you will. Em swam the next rapid. The only rapid she swam. Coincidence or an EVIL FISH PLOT....you decide.
April was a dead catfish that Em fished up out of the river, and plopped on the front of her Jib. Em's 8 now and when we tried to tell her April (Em named it) was just sleeping, Em said "I think April's dead." And then she said "Why is April dead?" And I wanted to say "I don't know Em, why is it taking us two days to run the Middle. Sometimes things are the way they are and...well you know the rest."
But existentialism is kind of hard to explain to an eight year old that is paddling on jelly bean fumes. So I told her April probably died in a head on fish collision of some kind. "Really?" This is when I should have showed her my crummy card trick that never works...
April paddled with us for about two miles floating in a half inch of water pooled on the front of Em's boat. And of course, April's cold dead eyes never stopped looking at me. If I paddled in front of Em...the glassy stare. If I paddled beside Em, April would float around in her pool of water and stare some more like some demon fish from "heck". (Hi Em.) At one point I even wanted to try a roll so I could be away from those eyes for just a couple of seconds. Who am I kidding? I would have wet exited and run into April's dead cousins. (cue Psycho soundrack)
Thank God for Diagonal Ledges. One second April is there staring at me like I was the only person on the Planet Earth that really liked Mrs Pauls Fishsticks, and the next second she was gone. Back to the deep. Back to her cousins....and straight into my nightmares.
I will say this. Make of it what you will. Em swam the next rapid. The only rapid she swam. Coincidence or an EVIL FISH PLOT....you decide.
posted by Exaggoman at 9:49 AM
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