Shady Pines Resort

"I told Jimmy I'd show him how to fish. Would you like to go with us? We'll just be fishing off the dock this time."

Wendy smiled, and that was the most beautiful smile I'd seen in a long, long time.

"Jimmy asked if he could go with you and I said yes, but I think I'd better stay here this time. Carl's a little under the weather, and...well, I'd better stay here."

She turned to Jimmy and stroked his head.

"Jimmy, if you catch enough fish, I'll cook them for you. Now, go have fun with Mr. Ash."

Jimmy did have fun. On the way to the dock, I stopped by the bait house and picked up a box of nightcrawlers, one of the rods and tackle boxes I keep there to rent. He was a little disappointed we weren't going to use minnows, but cheered back up when I told him the fish we were after liked worms better then minnows. In a few minutes we were sitting at the end of the dock and Jimmy was intently watching the bobber in the water.

The end of my dock is thick with bluegills and rock bass, so I knew Jimmy wouldn't have long to wait. Less than a minute after the bobber settled down, it started to bob again.

"Jimmy, see that? A fish is tasting your worm. When the bobber goes under, you jerk the rod up hard, OK?"

Jimmy nodded, and a second later the bobber headed for the bottom. I yelled, "Pull Jimmy, pull". I didn't need to do that because he already was. The bow in the rod tip told me he'd hooked something. Jimmy was reeling in line as fast as he could.

That something turned out to be a bluegill that was just about the right size to eat. I took it off the hook, pulled a stringer out of the tackle box and strung the fish, then tossed the stringer off the dock and clipped the end to an eyebolt I use for tying up boats.

When I turned around, Jimmy had fished a new worm from the box and was trying to thread it on the hook. He poked his finger once and said, "Ouch", but kept working. He got the worm on pretty good for a first time, and then tossed it back into the water. Just like the first time, the bobber had just settled when it went under again.

We caught thirty or so bluegills and rock bass before we ran out of nightcrawlers. We kept six of the biggest and threw the rest back. Jimmy seemed to understand when I told him if everyone kept all the fish they caught, pretty soon there wouldn't be any fish in the lake. I took him to the fish house then and showed him how to clean them. I didn't let him use a knife, but he scaled all but the first one.

I walked him back to their cabin then, well, I walked and carried the fish and Jimmy ran. He was yelling, "Mom, Mom, I caught some fish". Seconds later, Wendy walked out the door. I walked up and asked if she had a bowl. She asked Jimmy if he'd get one for her. As he dashed inside, she looked at me.

"I told Jimmy I'd cook what he caught, but I didn't think he'd get any. I don't have the slightest idea how to cook these."

"Just do what you'd do when you fry chicken. Dip each one in an egg beat with a little milk, roll them in flour, and toss 'em in the pan. I usually use corn meal, but flour will do fine."

Jimmy brought the bowl from the cabin then. I put the fish in the bowl, and turned to leave. Jimmy called out before I got started.

"Mr. Ash, can we go fishing again tomorrow?"

I couldn't say no, not after I'd seen the look on his face.

Jimmy and I fished every day until they left. The last day, I took him out on a boat and we used minnows. Jimmy missed a lot of fish, but he caught three keeper walleyes, and that made up for all the misses. I showed him how to fillet fish, and took him home with six walleye filets in the bowl he brought along every day after the first.

They left Saturday morning. I don't think Carl was really sober because he got in their car on the passenger side. Wendy walked up to me and smiled that smile again.

"Mr. Ash, thank you so much for taking Jimmy fishing. He won't stop talking about coming back next year. I hope we can, but I don't know if Carl will want to."

I shook her hand and said all she needed to do was call me when she decided on a date. I watched the car until it turned the first bend in the gravel lane.

That winter, I bought a rifle and went hunting with one of the local guides. I got a deer, missed a moose, and had the time of my life. New Years Eve was once again in front of the big fireplace in the lodge with a glass of scotch.

Wendy called me in early February and asked if I had a cabin available for the first week of July. I did, and penciled in her name for that week. When I got her deposit a week later, I erased the pencil and wrote her name in pen for Cabin 6 for the first week of July.

I'd been pretty busy making improvements to the resort once the weather warmed up, and had nearly forgotten about her and Jimmy. The Saturday her reservation was to start, she walked into the lodge with Jimmy. Jimmy had grown a bit taller but his grin was still the same. I didn't see Carl, but I figured he was in the car.

Wendy signed the register and paid me in cash for the week, then asked me if I could take Jimmy fishing some more.

"Sure. He's a good fishing buddy. I uh, I thought maybe your husband would want to do that though."

Wendy's smile changed to a firm line that was almost a frown.

"Carl and I aren't married anymore. It's just Jimmy and me."

"I didn't know or I wouldn't have brought it up. I'm sorry for that."

She smiled again.

"Don't be. I'm not. I still have Jimmy."

That afternoon I took Jimmy out on one of the boats again. When he walked down to the dock that day, he carried a small tackle box and a brand new spinning rod and reel. He grinned when I asked him about them.

"I read all about fishing in books from the library, and Mom bought me this rod and reel and my tackle box. I hope I picked out the right stuff. She wouldn't let me buy everything I wanted."

He'd done a good job for a kid who'd only fished a few times before in his life. He had the right size hooks, a couple bobbers, some sinkers, and sitting in the tray of the tackle box, two red and white spoons, a surface lure with a propeller on the back, and a lead jig with a spinner attached to the head. All the lures were still in the boxes. I asked Jimmy what he was going to do with those.

"Well, one of my books said northern pike will strike red and white spoons and bass will take the surface lure and the spinner. I practiced casting in the back yard before we came and I want to try that this year."

That afternoon, I idled the outboard and Jimmy cast to the shore and the lily pads. He hooked three northerns, one of about two pounds, and two bass that gave him quite a fight before I used the dip net to get them into the boat. Back at the fish house, I started to fillet the fish, but Jimmy stopped me.

"I joined the Cub Scouts when school started and I earned this so I could clean my own fish."

He pulled a small card from his back pocket. It said "Totin' Chip" on the front and was signed by somebody named Wayne Elders. It said Jimmy Hanson had proven he knew how to safely use a knife. As I handed Jimmy one of the fillet knives I keep in the fish house, I wondered why his last name wasn't Mitchell, like Wendy's. He tested the edge carefully with his thumb, then picked up one of the northerns and made a slice just behind the gill covers on one side.

I had to help him a couple of times, but he ended up with some nice fillets and not much left on the backbone or skin. Wendy was sitting outside when Jimmy handed her the bowl of fillets.

"Mom, can we have these for dinner? I'll catch some more tomorrow."

Wendy smiled and patted him on the head.

"Sure we can, Honey. Maybe Mr. Ash would join us if we asked him. It's the least I can do since he spent his time to fish with you."

She looked up at me and smiled.

"I'd really like you to stay for dinner. I brought corn meal to bread the fish this time, and I baked a pie before we left and brought it along."

Dinner was great. Jimmy talked about a hundred miles an hour about fishing, what fish he could catch, how he was going to catch them, and which fish would be the best to eat. I got in a word or two when he stopped to breathe. Wendy sat there and smiled at both of us.

Jimmy slowed down a while after that, and he yawned a couple of times. I figured I'd better be letting them get to bed, so I stood up and told Jimmy I'd meet him on the dock about two the next afternoon. He said he'd be there and then yawned again. Wendy told him to go get ready for bed, and then walked out onto the little porch with me. She touched my arm when I started to walk away.

"Mr. Ash, I want to thank you for taking such an interest in Jimmy again. Last summer, I thought he was just having a good time, but you changed him. He was in trouble at school a lot in first grade. When we got back from here, he said he wanted to go to the library. He checked out a book on fishing and started reading it. The next week he wanted another one.

"When school started, he kept doing that and he didn't get in trouble again. I had to remind him a couple of times that if he had homework, it had to come first. He started doing his homework as soon as he got home, and then read about fishing until I tucked him in. He got almost perfect marks all year long.

"The Cub Master from the local Cub Scouts talked to them at school one day. Jimmy came home and bugged me to death until I said he could join. From then on, if he wasn't reading about fishing, he was working on his Cub Scout badge. He's a different boy now. Thank you so much."

Before I could say anything, Wendy hugged me and kissed me on the cheek. I was still standing on her porch with my mouth hanging open after she went back inside and closed the door.

As I walked back to the lodge I had mixed feelings about what had happened. The summer before, she was married and just one guest out of many. After that hug and kiss on the cheek, I was thinking of her in a different way and I didn't know if that was bad or good.

I liked Jimmy and I liked him a lot. Wendy seemed to be a really nice woman, and I liked her too. I thought it was just because she was friendly, but that hug was a lot more than just friendly. She hadn't just leaned forward to minimize body contact like most women do with a friendly hug. She had pressed her breasts into my chest.

Jimmy and I went fishing every day, and by the end of the day on Monday, he was casting better than some of the adult guests I'd been out with. He'd also started measuring each fish by laying them on the ruler molded into the top of his tackle box. He knew the minimum keeper length for each type of fish, and if one was short, he'd sigh, slide it back into the water and tell it to grow some before he caught it again.

On Tuesday afternoon, we were fishing for walleyes and the fishing was slow. Jimmy reeled in his line, checked that the minnow was still there and then let it back down again. Once he had his bait set like I'd taught him, he looked up at me.

"Do you like my Mom?"

"Well, sure I do, Jimmy. She's a nice woman."

"She likes you too."

"I hope she does. I want all my guests to like me."

"She doesn't like you that way. She just likes you."

"Did she tell you that?"

"No, but I heard her say that last night. She thought I was asleep but I wasn't."

"What did she say?"

"That she didn't know why she had to like a man who lived so far away from us."

"I think you probably misunderstood her."

"Nope. That's what she said. She likes you enough she's gonna ask you to eat dinner with us again tonight."

Jimmy looked at me and grinned.

"I wasn't supposed to tell you."

I chuckled.

"Well, thanks for the warning, Jimmy. Don't worry, I won't say you told me."

We pulled up our minnows a few minutes later and Jimmy spent half an hour casting for northerns and bass while I ran the outboard. By five, we had his two keeper northerns cleaned and I was walking him back to their cabin.

Wendy was evidently watching for us, because she walked out on the cabin porch just before we got there. I wasn't thinking about Jimmy being beside me when I said "Wow."

Jimmy giggled.

"See, told ya she likes ya."

Well, he had told me that. He hadn't told me Wendy would be wearing a short, green dress that hugged her curves like a second skin. He hadn't told me she'd taken her hair out of the pony tail she'd had when we left and brushed it until the golden strands fell in waves over her shoulders. He hadn't told me those bare shoulders would be soft and round. He hadn't told me the legs I'd only seen in jeans would be so slender and would do so much for the low heels she wore.

Wendy was smiling when we walked up. I asked her if she had a date with some lucky guy and she blushed.

"Well, I was hoping to. Would you stay for dinner again."

Jimmy looked up at me again.

"You're gonna aren't you, Mr. Ash?"

I said I would, but I'd have to go clean up some if I was going to be a match for Wendy.

She smiled.

"You're fine just like you are, but if you want to, go ahead. Jimmy, I'll put these in the refrigerator for tomorrow. We're having chicken tonight. I went to town while you two were fishing and bought one."

Wendy wasn't just a very pretty woman, she was a great cook. Wendy had fried the chicken like my mother used to, and served it along with green beans and corn. The stoves in my cabins have ovens, but nobody ever uses them. Wendy had. She didn't have to tell me the pie was blueberry. I could see the blue-black filling through the slits in the golden brown pastry cover.

About nine thirty Jimmy started yawning. Wendy said it was time for him to get to bed. Jimmy told me good night and then walked into the second bedroom of their cabin with Wendy close behind. She came back a few minutes later, and I started to get up. The look on her face and her voice made me sit back down.

"Mr. Ash, I thought you might want a cup of coffee."

I smiled.

"A cup of coffee would be great, and you really should call me Gary."

Wendy laughed.

"OK, I'll call you Gary if you'll call me Wendy. It'll be a few minutes."

While the percolator burbled away, we talked about small stuff -- Jimmy, of course, what she liked about the lodge, that sort of thing.

When the percolator gurgled it was done, Wendy got two cups from the cabinet and filled them with coffee. She turned to me then.

"Cream and sugar?"

"Just cream will be fine."

Wendy took her coffee black, and when she brought the cups to the table she stopped and cocked her head to one side and smiled at me.

"Could we sit on the porch? It feels stuffy in here for some reason, probably because I was cooking."

I sat down in the glider on the porch and put my cup on the table beside it. Wendy sat down on the other end and then sighed.

"I came out here every night last summer. It's cooler, and it's so peaceful. I'd bring a soda and just let the sound of the water make me forget everything."

"Yeah, it'll do that to you. That's one of the reasons I bought the place."

"I take it you had some things to forget?"

"Yeah. My boss then was a jerk. I was trying to forget about him."

"I know the type. I used to work for one."

"What do you do now besides sitting on a porch drinking coffee with a man you hardly know?"

"I'm a loan coordinator for a bank. It's not as high up as it sounds. I'm just the one who does the credit search and all the paperwork. As for knowing you, I don't need to know you all that well to have a cup of coffee with you. Jimmy told me you're a good man. He likes you a lot, and that's good enough for me."

"All I did was take him fishing a few times."

"Yes, but you don't know everything about Jimmy. Jimmy has never had a real father. Last summer, you were the closest thing he's ever had to one. You didn't have to do it, but you did, and I thank you a lot for that."

I shrugged.

"I probably shouldn't have interfered, but he impressed me as a kid who wanted to fish more than anything. His dad wasn't fishing with him, and I felt sorry for him at first. Once I got to know him better, I realized he was also pretty sharp. I like that little kid.

Wendy put her hand on my arm.

"No, you should have done what you did. Carl isn't Jimmy's real father, and I don't think he ever intended to be a substitute for one. He just asked me to marry him because he thought...you know, I never really thought about it before, but I don't know why he asked me to marry him."

"You must have felt something for him."

"Oh, I did, just like I did for Jimmy's father. Thank God Trey and I didn't get married. He ran off as soon as he found out I was pregnant with Jimmy. I can't believe I was so stupid twice.

"Carl was handsome and charming and it was great going out with him. We went to the best restaurants and then to the movies or to a club -- all the things a girl expects from a guy. He did seem to drink a little more than I liked, but he was always just so charming.

"Once we were married, he changed. He was drinking at home every night and when he was drunk, he was abusive. At first I though it was me, but after he hit me twice, I realized that was just the way he was. I'd been thinking about a divorce when we were up here, but I didn't want to put Jimmy through that. After we got home from here last summer, he slapped Jimmy for talking so much about you and fishing. That's when I moved us into an apartment and found a lawyer."

I didn't quite know how to respond to what Wendy had just told me. I enjoy a scotch now and then, and I like good wine, but I have no tolerance for a drunk. I'd never hit a woman in my life and had no tolerance for any man who would even think of doing that. Wendy saved me the trouble of thinking up something to say that wouldn't hurt her feelings.

"You must think I'm pretty messed up, huh?"

"No. I think you maybe made a bad decision with your ex, but that's fixed now."

"I wish it was. The one thing I liked about Carl is that I wasn't alone at home. I had Jimmy, but it's not the same, you know? Sometimes I wanted to be around an adult, not a child. I wanted to be able to talk about things besides work that I didn't want Jimmy to hear, and Carl was there. I don't think he listened, but I could at least tell him what I was thinking."

Our conversation was getting a little too personal. I tried to lighten it up a little.

"I know how you feel. I'm here alone all winter long, and sometimes I talk to myself just so I can pretend somebody is listening."

Wendy chuckled.

"You do that too? I thought I was the only one."

"Nope. I have some pretty deep discussions with myself along about February."

"Like what?"

"Oh, nothing you'd be interested in."

Wendy giggled.

"This is the first adult conversation I've had outside of work since March. I'd be interested if you were telling me about doing your laundry."

"Well, when I used to work in sales, the latest thing in the industry was to hire a consultant to tell you how to run your business. One of the major themes from all of them, all the consultants I heard anyway, was that all your employees should all be friends and do things together outside of work. That's supposed to make them want to help each other out when they're working.

"I thought that was a bunch of bull, but the CEO bought into it. We went to several workshops in places where we could work on work stuff during the day, and do things together after dinner. That was supposed to teach us how much alike we all were.

"One day when it was snowing too hard to do anything outside, I wondered if I could offer the same thing to companies for their workshops. They could work during the day, and after dinner, fish, or swim, or play pool in the lodge, things like that."

Wendy chuckled.