Wish You Well(63)

and looked around, seemingly for a place to hide quick, but coming up empty.

"What you doing here?" he finally said.

Lou slid off the horse and knelt to play with Jeb. "Just came to pay a visit. Where are

your folks?"

"Pa working. Ma went down to McKenzie's."

'Tell 'em I said hello."

Diamond thrust his hands in his pockets, bent one bare toe over the other. "Look, I got

things to do."

"Like what?" asked Lou, rising.

"Like fishing. I got to go fishing."

"Well, I'll go with you."

He cocked his head at her. "You know how to fish?"

"They have lots of fishing holes in Brooklyn."

They stood on a makeshift pier built from a few planks of rough-hewn oak not even

nailed together but merely wedged into the rocks that stuck out from the bank of the wide

stream. Diamond strung the line with a squirmy pink worm while Lou looked on in

disgust. A tomboy was a tomboy, but apparently a worm was a worm. He handed the

extra pole to her.

"G'on cast your line out there."

Lou took the pole and hesitated.

"You want hep?"

"I can do it."

"See this here's a southern pole, and I 'xpect you prob'ly used to them newfangled

northern poles."

"You're right, that's all I use. Northern pole."

To his credit, Diamond never cracked a smile, but just took the pole, showed her how to

hold it, and then threw a near perfect cast.

Lou watched his technique carefully, took a couple of practice tosses, and then sailed a

pretty cast herself.

"Why, that was 'bout good as any I throwed," Diamond said with all due southern

modesty.

"Give me a couple more minutes and I'll do better than you," she said slyly.

"You still got to catch the fish," Diamond gamely replied.

A half hour later Diamond had hooked his third small-mouth and worked it to shore with

steady motions. Lou looked at him, properly in awe of his obvious skill, but her

competitive streak ran long, and she redoubled her efforts to trump her fish-mate.

Finally, without warning, her line went tight and she was pulled toward the water. With a

whiplike effort, she reared the pole back, and a thick catfish came halfway out of the

stream.

"Holy Lord," said Diamond as he saw this creature rise and then fall back into the water.

"Biggest catfish I ever seed." He reached for the pole.

Lou cried out, "I got it, Diamond." He stepped back and watched girl and fish fighting it

out on roughly equal terms. Lou appeared to be winning at first, the line going taut and

then slacking, while Diamond called out words of advice and encouragement. Lou

slipped and slid all over the unsteady pier, once more almost going in the water, before

Diamond yanked on her overalls and pulled her back.

Finally, though, Lou grew weary and gasped out, "I need some help here, Diamond."

With both pulling on pole and line, the fish quickly was dragged to shore. Diamond

reached down, hauled it out of the water, and dropped it on the boards, where it flopped

from side to side. Fat and diick, it would be good eating, he said. Lou squatted down and

looked proudly at her conquest, aided though it had been. Right as she peered really

closely, the fish shimmied once more, then jumped in the air, and spat water, the hook

working free from its mouth at the same time. Lou screamed and jumped back, knocked

into Diamond, and they both went tumbling into the water. They came up sputtering and

watched as the catfish flopped itself over to the edge of the pier, fell in the water, and was

gone in a blink. Diamond and Lou looked at each other for a tortured moment and then

commenced a titanic splashing battle. Their peals of laughter could probably be heard on

the next mountain.

Lou sat in front of the fireplace while Diamond built up the flames so they could dry off.

He went and got an old blanket that smelled to Lou of either Jeb, mildew, or both, but she

told Diamond thank you as he put it around her shoulders. The inside of Diamond's house

surprised her because it was neat and clean, though the pieces of furniture were few and

obviously handmade. On the wall was an old photo of Diamond and a man Lou assumed

was his father. There were no photos Lou could see of his mother. While the fire picked

up, Jeb lay down next to her and started attending to some fleas in his fur.

Diamond expertly scaled the bass, ran a hickory stick through each, mouth to tail, and

cooked them over the fire. Next he cut up an apple and rubbed the juice into the meat.

Diamond showed Lou how to feel the rib cage of the fish and pry thick white meat from

tiny bones. They ate with their fingers, and it was good. "Your dad was real nicelooking," Lou said, pointing to the picture.