Gone Fishing
One summer evening during a break from college, my sister Jade and I decided that we would go fishing the next morning. There’s a pond behind my parents’ house and a canoe that we liked to row around in. We don’t really fish, but it sounded like a good enough activity for a lazy summer day. We talked about the bait we’d use and how many fish we would catch and then went to bed.
The next morning I, being the lazy college student I was, overslept and we didn’t even get to go fishing. Jade had an appointment of some sort that day and I had been thoughtless and didn’t consider it. By the time I got up Jade was leaving but she spared my feelings as she left, telling me it was no big deal.
She had carefully put up the fishing poles and paddles but on the kitchen counter I found a note, scrawled on pink and yellow paper. She had drawn a big heart and written “Gone Fishing” inside of it so anyone coming through would know where we were. I know she was disappointed but she never mentioned it to me again.
I don’t remember what the pond looked like, what appointment Jado went to, or what else I did that day, but I do have a clear picture of that note in my head. I think of it often and carry it with me as a talisman, reminding me to do the things I say I’ll do and to be more like Jade, enthusiastic and forgiving.
Later Tater. 💞