Universal Happiness

Ok so there Thing 2 and I were, setting up by the small public pond to do a couple of hours of fishing. Thing 2 has been fishing three times and has caught no fish but she has had several nibbles. Her worm was stolen twice last night.

So there we were, getting all baited and ready to fish. Then two Mexican children came up beside us. A young boy and his slightly older sister. The sister walked over to the dock and started fishing with a hand line, a small hook, a bobber, and a third of a worm.

The boy, maybe eight or nine, kept watching me as I carefully handled Thing 2's hook and then my own. I said, "Hello" and he said "No English." He sat beside me, not too close but close enough to watch me fish. I cast it out a couple of times and he watched. Thing 2 was about ten feet away from me and fishing near the dock where his sister was fishing.

I stood up and waved for him to come over. I showed him how to cast with my rod and reel, how to use his thumb to stop the reel from a nasty backlash, and how to reel it back in again.

Then I motioned for him to cast it and walked back to my chair and had a seat in the warm sun. The ducks flew by so close I could reach out and touch them it seemed at times. They'd land in the water and take off again. The little Mexican boy was having a blast, Thing 2 was having a blast, the sister sat earnestly on the dock with her handline, watching her bobber.

Then she pulled up a tiny perch. About the size of her hand and half the size of mine. She ran over to her brother. He took the tiny thing off of the hook and she let it go back into the pond. I just sat there and enjoyed the afternoon. Thing 2 took a nightcrawler over to her and gave it to her for the hook to replace her now eaten worm.

Finally it came around to time to leave and we loaded up and headed to rehearsal, I felt sorry about saying goodbye to such a great afternoon but it was time. It was a good afternoon and even though I couldn't talk to the children we understood each other.