Boon laughed, knowing full well that he couldn’t fit into anything she owned. Then he pointed at the fishing pole nearest her. “Get it! Get it! You’ve got a bite!”
Angelle looked at the pole, then at Boon.
“Hurry up! It’s going to get away!” he exclaimed.
“It’s not my pole!” she answered as she scurried up on her knees to grab the pole he’d stood up in a small hole on the bank near where he sat. She immediately started reeling in whatever had the hook on what was apparently ‘her’ fishing pole.
“That’s it! Don’t let him get away!” Boon encouraged.
A few minutes later, he used an old faded net to scoop up one of the biggest catfish Angelle had ever seen.
“Look at that fish! It’s got to be a record!” Boon said excitedly.
Angelle grinned as she held her fish up, still hooked, as Boon removed the net so they could get a better look at it. “He’s huge!” she said.
“Gonna be some good eating,” Boon said.
The look of excitement on Angelle’s face dimmed, and he knew what was going to happen before she did it. She ‘accidentally’ hit the tension button on the fishing pole, causing the fish to flop to the grassy edge of the bank, then flip around a few times before it got loose from the hook and splashed back into the water.
Boon didn’t even make a move to try to grab the fish before it sank back into the murky water.
She looked at Boon sheepishly.
He looked at her with a smirk on his face. “You did that on purpose.”
“No, really, I just happened to hit the tension control and he did the rest.”
“You did it on purpose,” he repeated.
Angelle rolled her eyes and shrugged. “He was just trying to have breakfast, just like us. He didn’t know you wanted to eat him or he’d have never swallowed your bait.”
“You’re too soft hearted,” he said, taking the fishing pole from her.
“You must not have minded. You made no move to try to keep him out of the water.”
Boon shook his head and chuckled as he went about baiting the pole again. “See if I get up early to start fishing for us again. Next time you can start your own pole.”
“He wasn’t ready to be food.”
“He might have been.”
“No, I’m pretty sure he really wanted to go swim with his friends some more.”
“Oh, really?” Boon asked.
“Yep. Heard it loud and clear.”
“And what happens when I hunt a deer, or a boar. Are they going to want to keep playing with their friends,” he asked.
“If I see them running around, grazing, living their best lives… maybe. But if they’re already processed, definitely not.”
“You do know this is how I will feed us. Fishing, hunting…”
“Gardening, foraging,” she said, grinning at him. “But yes, I do. And I am perfectly capable of hunting an animal and bringing it home for dinner. It’s just not my favorite thing to do because I tend to humanize them and then I feel bad for them. I will happily cook up whatever you bring home, though.”
“You’re too kind for your own good, you know?” Boon said as he cast her line out again, then kissed her.
“I don’t think Saige would agree with that.”
