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Everything takes a drastic change in time. The one thing that will not change with time is good memories. Carl Wilson remembers, he is a devoted fair weather fisherman who doesn't mind catching fish when fishing alone on days that are lazier than a cold night crawler. He remembers it was the day before Christmas, not a creature was crawling, not even a mousy grub. Carl thought back on this very unseasonably warm Christmas Eve, a bummer for most, but Carl saw it as a fishing trip at the time and that was three years ago. He laid his achy body in the craft-matic bed, wrapped in his brown flannel blanket with a teddy bear [a teddy bear?] cradled in his fish catching arm. Dosing off watching the clock tic closer to Christmas day, he focused his thoughts on the fishing trip he took at 4-mile creek. These thoughts came from a bag of his favorite memories. He remembered waking up to a very bright sun shining through his cracked bedroom window that was destroyed by a violent hailstorm in the fall. Crawling out of his toasty warm bed that day, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he took a quick glance out the broken window to look up and find a clear blue sky on Christmas Eve day. The day warmed up instead of the mercury dropping to winter cold temperatures, as he reached for today's mail, and grabbing the paper so he could kill two birds with one stone, Carl sifted through the mail to find a letter from his insurance company. Very nervous about this letter, He immediately opened the letter to discover a check covering the cracked window he had filed acclaim for. There is enough money to cover that bait-casting rod he wanted to buy for his lonely bait-casting reel. He made a mad dash toward the bedroom to get himself ready to go and get that rod he had his eye on for so long. Since his Christmas gift shopping was completed and it is a fact that the bait store, which had that rod, is open for the last minute shopper, he headed for that store. Arriving at the bait store to purchase the rod he had his eye glued on, he decided to take advantage of this warm day and go fishing. Coming out of the store, he did a 180 back into the bait shop to buy a lure so he can practice casting his new rod and reel outfit. In a race against time, and knowing it would be a senseless fishing adventure, he talked himself into doing just that. Besides, it was such a beautiful day, he decided to drive to 4-mile creek just to practice casting that new lure. He parked the truck near the muddy path leading to the creek that he knew had no fish action this time of year anyway, but Carl grabbed his new rod that was matched with his dust-collected reel all excited. He realized he is going to have a bad fishing day and get skunked, he just had to try out the new rod, while tying the new practice lure he bought to his line Being, that it was 10 degrees colder near the creek than in the city, a warm winter coat was worn to fight off the difference in temperature. Traveling the path surrounded by a forest of leafless trees allowed Carl to view Lake Ontario in the distance. It was not as windy as he thought, he noticed. Reaching the desired spot for some good casting practice, Carl settled in to begin his objective. Because the equipment was so foreign to him, he thought, gee, this is the perfect set of circumstances, beautiful day, and perfect spot. Making several casts out into the water, Carl learned about backlash in a hurry. In the process of learning his equipment, a noticeable hit was felt. The first instance was normal, instinct told him, set the hook! There is nothing fighting back. "What are you going to catch in this creek this time of year!" as he thought with a grin on his face and making a fast retrieve to reel in slack to that senseless act. Reeling in the slack another strike occurs, but this time the hook was set to a fish fighting back. Fighting like a log, a Northern Pike was carefully caught and released. While back at home getting ready for Christmas he thought about the day feeling great, and praying to thank God for his insurance check, which purchased the rod he wanted, and a nice fish caught. THE END |
GIFTS
UNANSWERED