The boys and I went down to the lake again today. Right around lunchtime they asked about fishing. One of the boys got a fishing pole for his birthday. This led to another searching the garage for any kind of usable broken one. They asked me again through the window if they could pack their lunches and go fish. They had everything planned. I said they probably needed to find some worms first, thinking this might give me some more time to decide whether or not the answer to the fishing request was going to be yes.

On the way down the beach hill one of them said, “You just gonna tan, Mom?”, to which I replied, “Nah, I brought my homework to read.” In a way that made wonder what’d connected in his mind he then asked, “What if we get pulled into the water by a giant fish?”, to which without even thinking I said, “Eh, I’ll come and save you”, (though I’ve thought about it considerably since.) Thankfully the only saving that needed to happen was that of a bobber and line that got caught in a shore tree. Since I was the one in the most transition-able clothing who could also reach the tree, I pulled up my leggings, slipped into my sandals, and walked to the edge where the beach becomes water.

Since it was outside of the swimming area, I was not thrilled about the prospect of walking on the lake floor thick with months old leaves that were homes to who knows what. I said out loud, “Maybe we need to wait until we can get one of the boats…”, to which one of the boys and I realized nearly simultaneously that we could just get one of the kayaks out now. He and I walked up to the beach shed and carried the kayak back to the shore. He got in, fully clothed with shoes, and paddled himself over to the tree. He tried at first to use his knife but ended up having to break the branch with his hands. They fished for nearly two hours, didn’t catch anything, but also enjoyed the wide afternoon.