Week 13 entry...
Norton jolted awake. The water rippled around him as he glanced left and right for what had woken him up--
"NORTON, WAKE UP!"
--so abruptly, which was apparently his little brother Pete yelling for him. Norton glanced up at the translucent sheet overhead and could easily discern it was only about noon -- far too early for him to be up and about.
"Go back to sleep, Pete," he said. "We'll go out later."
"Norton! C'mon, you gotta see this -- there's food *everywhere*!" Pete cried out. He swam up alongside Norton and began jabbing at his side. "C'mon, c'mon!"
Sighing over his lost nap (nothing was going to wave off Pete when he was in full-on excitement mode), Norton flicked his tail to come up out of the reed bed. Pete eagerly moved off to the west, though in his eagerness it was more like west-north-northwest-northeast-thisseemsoff-east-south-southeast-waitthisisreallywrong-west-northwest as he zigzagged about. Norton followed after him at a slower pace, but gradually caught up with him anyway due to actually swimming in a straight line.
"Look, Norton, look!" Pete said, flicking his fins forward, his eyes wide with delight. "What is it?"
As they continued to swim forward, hundreds of thin filaments dangling from the ice overhead came into view. Each one had a different tidbit hanging from the end -- hooks with worms, minnows, bread, corn, burger, steak, and many more things he had no idea what they were. Norton knew what it meant, though.
"Gotta be extra careful today, Pete," he said. "Don't eat or touch anything that's just floating in the water at our level, remember?"
Pete nodded, but Norton could tell he was distracted by all the shiny, sparkling, good-smelling stuff all around as they swam through the maze of lines. Norton had to more than once knock him to the side a little bit as he eagerly swam up to see Whatever New Thing as they moved along.
"Lookit, Norton! What is that!?" Pete said as he took off towards a line that was dangling a little ways off from the main pack.
As Norton approached, Pete swam around and around the strange object. It was about five inches long and perfectly cylindrical, pierced through the middle by the usual barbed hook. Norton had seen a lot of weird things hooked to these lines before, but this was a new one.
"Smells great, doesn't it, Norton?" Pete asked. "I bet I could just-"
It happened almost too quickly for Norton to even process it. Pete darted forward, nipping at the end of the strange object. At that moment, though, the line was jerked a bit upwards, and Pete went right underneath it. Instinct told him not to let it get away, though, so he quickly flipped around to bite at it again.
Instinct had taken hold of Norton as well -- with single powerful thrust of his tail, he lunged through the few feet of water between them and crashed into Pete. He curved his body to the right and then back to the left, pushing Pete as far to the side as he could. As Norton whipped around again, opening his mouth to yell for Pete to get away, he didn't notice the baited hook had been lowered again. As he swam right into it, the line was again jerked from above, and Norton felt the hook sink into the side of his mouth.
Almost immediately, he was being pulled upwards. He at once turned and thrust for the bottom, but it was of no use. He saw Pete watching helplessly, frantically swimming around him, as Norton was dragged, struggling, towards the ice above.
Bright light assaulted Norton's vision as he was hauled through the hole and onto the top of the ice. He couldn't make anything out for several long seconds, but could hear several voices yelling excitedly all around him.
"Holy cow, look at that one!"
"That's the winner for sure right there, Kyle!"
"Look at the size of him! Let's get over to the weigh station."
As Norton adjusted to the brightness of the unfiltered-by-water light, he saw he'd been caught by a young boy, presumably Kyle, still standing and gripping his ice fishing rod. The couple of adults held Norton as one worked to get the hook out of his mouth. Norton could see the large tub off to one side where he knew he'd end up as soon as they got the hook removed.
Norton saw Kyle's attention suddenly taken by something in the fishing hole. "Dad, look! There's another fish in there!" Kyle cried out. Norton's heart sank as he realized Pete must be swimming just below the surface, not knowing that not only was there nothing he could do to help Norton, he was risking his own life as well. Norton began struggling more frantically, trying break free and somehow get flopped into the hole before they trapped him again. It was no use, though -- the adults quickly subdued him and at last he felt the hook slide free. They moved to take him to the tub.
"No, wait," Kyle said, holding up his gloved hand. He stood, looking from Norton to the hole and back again. "No, let's put him back."
"Are you crazy, Kyle?"
"You could win the whole Derby with this guy!"
"Don't be silly!"
Their words overlapped each other, tumbling out through the cold air incredulously. Norton twisted his head around as best he could, finally catching Kyle's gaze. The boy's bright blue eyes held Norton's muddy brown ones for a moment. Norton hardly dared to move, to breathe, to hope.
"No. I caught him, he's my fish," Kyle said. "And I want to put him back."
The adults couldn't believe their ears, but Kyle was adamant. At last, they persuaded Kyle to at least pose for a picture with the fish, which he agreed to as long as they were quick about it. Norton felt himself being passed over to the boy, and not wanting to risk his good fortune, didn't struggle at all as the boy held him up proudly for the camera.
The boy stepped back over to the hole, placing Norton on the ice beside it. With a "See ya, big fish," he slid Norton into the water gently. "Go find your friend."
Norton turned immediately and hung just beneath the water's surface, looking up at the boy whose face now rippled above him. As he heard Pete yelling happily off to his left, Norton flicked his fin in a 'thank you' wave to the boy.
Smiling, Kyle waved back.
This is my entry for the thirteenth week of Season 8 of therealljidol. This week's topic was 'current events', in that we could write on whatever topic and in whatever style we wanted to, but there had to be a tie-in to (preferably local) current events.
This past weekend was The Derby here in my neck of the rural woods -- a huge annual fishing contest in one of the nearby towns. The idea for my entry came from that event and from the picture in this article, where they mentioned using hot dogs as bait for northerns.
As always, thanks for reading.