Hudson planted his feet firmly as he reeled in fully and landed his fish. Beau removed the hook gently to avoid wounding the fish or himself.
‘What is it?’ Beau pulled his phone from his back pocket to take a photograph.
Hudson held the fish up in wet hands. ‘I think possibly a bream? All I know is it weighs a lot.’
‘It’s a bream.’ The guy running the fishing trip made the rounds on the boat, helping people get their hooks and bait ready, explaining what to do, and clarifying things like what fish they may have hauled out of the sea like in Hudson’s case.
‘Are you keeping it?’ one of the lads watching asked Hudson.
‘We’re putting them back,’ Beau told the kid.
Hudson had thought before they started that whatever they caught – if they caught anything at all – then they might take it away with them, perhaps do a barbecue. But, before the boat had come to a stop and they’d been allocated their fishing gear, Beau had decided they would use the catch-and-release method. And today was about being together, so Hudson would do it Beau’s way without question.
The sea breeze sent goose pimples up his arms despite holding the heavy catch for Beau to take a photograph. The sun had hidden behind a cloud but it was a beautiful day nonetheless. Hudson had forgotten what it felt like to be out at sea, the shore way in the distance, so much peace around them, apart from the occasional excited chatter on board, or a whoop of joy at a catch, but mostly the quiet determination of him, his son and the other family of four.
He leaned over to release the fish, making sure it was well away from the boat so it didn’t bash itself, and he watched it swim away to safety.
Over the next couple of hours, Beau helped the two younger boys with their rods. He had a caring side he showed with his younger sister and now with these virtual strangers. It would make him well-suited to a career with an air ambulance if that was really what he wanted to do.
The skipper joked that he should offer Beau a job as he was so good at helping others out and by the time they returned toshore, everyone on board had caught something – bream, trout, bass and a few crabs, which had been the highlight for the young boys for some reason.
‘Well, we don’t have any dinner,’ Hudson said as they made their way back to the campsite. ‘Pub?’
‘Can I take a shower first? I feel like I stink of fish.’
‘We probably both do, so I should do the same or we’ll scare all the other punters away, won’t we?’
‘Or we could not shower, could work in our favour, scare them off and have our choice of tables.’
Hudson laughed. Nothing could dampen his mood, well, maybe apart from not getting any dinner. All the activity and fresh air had made him unbelievably hungry.
They grabbed washbags from the tent and made their way to the shower block. Hudson hadn’t realised how much he’d missed this, what he’d sacrificed when things got difficult with Lucinda and he returned to work full time to pay the bills. It wasn’t an expensive trip – camping was cheap, the fishing excursion inexpensive. And the bonding, the time with his son, was priceless.
They headed for the pub dressed in jeans and jumpers – it was June but the sea breeze, the lack of sun and the fact that June really wasn’t delivering in the summer stakes this year meant they’d packed more for autumn weather than anything else. Hudson made a quick call to his parents on the way there to check on Carys and was firmly told to stop worrying and they’d see him tomorrow.
‘What’s it to be?’ Hudson had a pint and Beau a Coke and they perused the menu.
‘Cod and chips for me, with mushy peas.’
‘Think I’ll make that two.’ Hudson went over to the bar to place the order.
Back with his son, he pointed out, ‘You do know that cod is a fish, right?’
‘Course I do.’
‘You don’t see what I’m getting at?’
He shook his head.
‘You insisted we catch and release everything today. We could’ve brought something back to the campsite and cooked it on one of the barbecues.’
‘I just didn’t want to be the one to do it. It’s hypocritical, I know, but I just couldn’t.’
When their food arrived, as much as they were hungry, it didn’t deter from the fact that these were enormous portions. But they gave it a good go and got through most of it, by the end scraping chips through the ketchup and forcing them in.
‘Right, that’s it, any more and I’ll burst,’ said Hudson, willing someone to come and take the plates before he kept going with the chips that tempted him every second no matter how satiated he was.
The other patient and family liaison nurse, Paige, had generously taken on Hudson’s workload at the last minute. Hudson had made the call right after he’d put Carys to bed and while Beau was still opening up the two-man tent in the back garden, and he was glad he’d made the quick decision. This was quality time with Beau that both of them really needed. If he’d done this previously, his son might never have done something as irresponsible as taking part in a hoax call to the air ambulance. Then again, maybe Conrad had a point, that they all made mistakes in their youth, and what was important now to Hudson was that Beau seemed to be learning from it.
