“You chose well.Y’know, your dad, Uncle Brand, and I used to share this room when we were your age.”
“I know.Daddy told me.Here it is!”He hopped out of the closet, holding a kid-sized fishing pole, which was also dark blue.“My dad says I’m too little for a big pole.He says it’d probably knock me over and the hook would get stuck in my britches, whatever that means.”
I laughed, remembering Bax saying the same thing to me when he and Brand had taken me fishing on our lake.They fashioned a pole more my size out of a tree branch and taught me on that.They’d also taught me to swim and ride a bike and a horse.When I was little, my big brothers were my whole world.
When my chuckles died down, I said, “He just means that you wouldn’t be able to control the pole very well, and the hook would probably get caught in your pants.”
“Oh, that makes more sense, but I’ll be bigger soon, and then I’m gettin’ a bigger pole than his.It’s in the garage.C’mon.Let’s go get it so you can borrow it.”
“Comin’.”
We raced back down the stairs and ransacked the garage until we found Bax’s pole, and I pulled a Styrofoam container from the old fridge tucked in the corner, filled with wet dirt and earthworms.
And then I saw it—Bax’s four-wheeler.
Oh man.I’d wanted to ride this thing my whole life.When I was down and out once, I considered stealing it to sell for dope money.For many reasons, I was glad now I hadn’t.While Stu rummaged through Bax’s bigger tackle box, searching out fancy lures for fish we’d probably never catch, I ran my hand over the four wheeler’s handlebars and gas throttle.
Memories of the past played in my head.At one point in time, all four of us had our own four-wheelers.We rode every chance we got, and Abey and I tried like hell to keep up with Bax and Brand and their friends.My bike broke down.It wasn’t as nice as my siblings’.Bax tried to fix it, but it needed a specific part.He’d gone to our dad and asked him to buy the part.Noah Lee never bought it, and my bike sat on the side of the house, collecting rust for years until the prick had it hauled away with some other junk.
In my delinquent years, many times, I fantasized riding Bax’s bike off a cliff.That would show them all, and I’d take the shiny prize with me.Something stopped me from following through, and it wasn’t until I got sober that I realized the love and respect I had for my brother was the thing that had kept me alive.
“Hey, Stu, this thing still run?”
Looking over his shoulder, an excited glint lit behind his eyes.“Yeah.You thinkin’ what I’m thinkin’?”
“I’m thinkin’ if we ride to the lake instead of walkin’, we’d have more time to fish before the sun goes down.Is that what you’re thinkin’?”
“Yes!”
“You got a helmet?”
“Oh man.You’re gonna make me wear that dumb thing?”
“You better believe I am.”
Dejectedly, he walked to Bax’s work bench and pulled an electric blue helmet down.The name “Stu Man” had been stuck on the back with white mailbox-letter stickers.Before he slipped it on his head, he said, “Fine.Happy now?”
“Yes.Your head and all the stuff inside it are really important.By the way, I heard you like to tell stories.That true?”
“I guess so.”
“Your dad said you told a good one this mornin’.”
Stuey twisted his lips, giving away his guilt.“That story got me grounded from TV.”
“Maybe you can tell it to me while we fish.”
“Okay,” he said, nodding and smiling.
I hit the button on the wall to open the garage door, and evening light flooded in and washed away the dark.“Alright then.Hop on, Stu Man.”
The ride was awesome.
I smiled the whole damn way to the lake, with Stu in front of me, clutching the handles and helping me steer while the wind whipped at us.Although, I didn’t go nearly as fast as I wanted to.My cargo was way too precious for speed racing, but the trees still blurred slightly.The warm summer air molded and rushed around us, and I didn’t think I’d ever felt anything so perfect.
We parked a few yards from the lake near a little fishing dock someone had recently built that jutted over the edge of the water near where the lakebed had always dropped off, offering deeper fishing, and Stu hopped off the bike easily.
We didn’t always have trout here.They started populating when I was a teenager, swimming in from the creek that fed Lee Lake, but we’d always had bluegill and largemouth bass.I was excited to get my hands on a couple trout so I could cook them up and eat the suckers.I hadn’t had fresh lake trout since the Cascades.Maybe AJ and I could grill them.I noticed a grill tucked against the side of her house, hidden under a waterproof tarp, when I boarded up her window.
