LJ Idol - Week 2 - Throw Back The Little Ones
There was a breeze coming off the water, carrying with it the salty smell of the nearby open ocean and the slightly more pungent odor of the bait shop that sat at the entrance to the pier. It was a hot day but at least lacking in humidity, which meant that even though you were sweating your clothes at least didn't instantly adhere to your skin. It could have been worse, certainly, and that was what Jack Meadowes kept telling himself as he shifted his sitting position, trying to find comfort on the weather worn boards he was perched on.
He was sitting downwind from the aforementioned bait shop, at the very end of the narrow pier. Beside him sat his little sister Evelyn, her shoulders already turning pink from the sun overhead. For a moment he laments the fact that he didn't make her wear something with sleeves, but he quickly shakes it off. She's eight now and very independent, and there has to be some kind of life lesson in the fact that she not only chose to wear a sundress but also to staunchly refuse the use of sunscreen for reasons he can't even begin to fathom. Not to mention the fact that he is not her parent, only her brother, and it's probably in the job description to be a bit reckless with things such as sun burns.
They're both holding a rod and reel, old things that had belonged to their father when their father was still among the living, and there's a Styrofoam container of earth worms perched between them. Egram's Pier is not like the big tourist-attracting piers located in Wrightsville or Myrtle Beach, where people go to take pictures and have picnic lunches and to fish for sharks and stingrays and other ridiculous things. It's a small beaten up thing without side rails that creaks if you so much as look at it, sitting pretty on the fringes of South Port where there are no tourists to interfere. It's here that Jack and Evelyn sit, ignoring the hot day as they fish for grouper and snapper, several fish already in the basket that's tethered to the end post of the pier.
Jack can remember being small, younger than Evelyn is now, and coming here with their father. He remembers buying mealworms and chicken liver from the bait shop, carrying the old green and tan tackle box while his father carried everything else. They'd sit out here for hours, drinking soda and catching fish, weaving tall tales that they'd share with his mother when they got home. These memories bring a pang of longing and then of guilt, because he knows that Evelyn not got to have those memories and she never would, at least not that way that he did. She had only been four when their father had gotten sick, and only six when he had passed away. It doesn't seem fair, but there's nothing he can do to change it.
Reeling his line back in Jack checks his bait and adds another worm before casting back out, watching the sinker hit the surface with a satisfying plunk. He pulls the line taught and is settling back into his thoughts when Evelyn lets out a squeal and gives the pole a hard jerk over hear head. Jack grabs the net and abandons his own pole so he can help his little sister, leaning down to scoop the fish up once she has it in far enough. It's a small thing, barely bigger than the palm of his hand, and Jack reaches in to remove it from the net, starting to work the hook out of it's mouth.
“I did it,” Evelyn grins, clearly proud of her accomplishment. It's the first fish she'd managed to reel in on her own all day, and it's hard not to see how completely pleased she is.
Jack gives her a smile in return as he gets the hook free, holding onto the squirming thing with both hands. “Good job, Eve! See? I told you that you just had to be patient and it would happen,” he reminded her, starting to lean back over the edge of the dock, keeping his balance carefully since he had no hands to lean on.
There's a brief moment of confusion before Evelyn catches on, looking completely scandalized at what her brother is about to do. Jack is only aware when he feels a stinging in his right arm, where a tiny fist has punched him square and hard.
“What are you doing? That's not fair! I caught it all by myself!”
“Evelyn,” Jack sighs, trying his best to keep his temper with her, “it's too small to keep. We have to let him go.”
Before she can further protest he opens his hands and drops the fish, who quickly and almost immediately disappears from sight. He sits back up and wipes his hands on the knees of his jeans, giving her a look out of the corner of his eye. He can see her bottom lip trembling, and he's wondering if he did the right thing or not. Was this how his dad had felt with him? Constantly second guessing every little thing?
“Why?” Evelyn asked then, the most dreaded question in the world. “Why is it okay to catch the big fish and keep them but you have to let the little fish go?”
Pinching the bridge of his nose, Jack takes in a slow breath and then turns his head to look at her properly. Her question, in theory, should have been easy to answer, but in reality? Jack wasn't even entirely sure himself so he just tried to explain it as best he could.
“Because little fish need a chance to grow up and be big fish. If we didn't throw back all the little fish, then there would never be any good big fish for us to catch. Do you understand that?”
Jack nearly audibly groans when Evelyn shakes her head at him, her mouth turned down in intense concentration. It's quiet for much longer than he's comfortable with but finally she speaks again, her cheeks pink as she turns her face up to look at him.
“It isn't very fair though. A big fish can still grow more, right? And maybe some of the little fish aren't going to grow anymore. How is it fair to keep the big ones but not the little ones? Maybe none of the fish want to be caught at all.
Blinking down at her, Jack tries his best to formulate his answer but he can't seem to find one. She has made a point that he'd never really thought about, and one that he can't really dispute either. Desperately he wishes that his father was here, because he always knew what to do and what to say. Every question Jack had ever had their had been an answer for, and he is coming up so impossibly short.
“Jack?” Evelyn asks after a moment, reaching out to tug on his sleeve. “Can't we just let all the fish go? That's the most fairest thing to do.”
It takes a minute for Jack to react, and when he finally does he simply gives her a smile. He reaches down to grab the rope and tugs the fish basket up, letting Evelyn open the top so that they can swim free. When it's empty they pack up their gear and start the trek back to the car, neither of them saying another word. As they're walking Jack watches Evelyn, who seems to be content despite the fact that they're going home empty handed, and he realizes something. His father hadn't always had all the answers, not really, and there were plenty of times when he'd left Jack to figure things out on his own. That was part of growing up and learning how to be the person you would become as an adult.
Nobody could tell you everything, or hold your hand through every single life lesson. There were some things you just had to figure out on your own. Sometimes in life you had to hold on to the big things with both hands, and let the little things go. Other times you just had to let go of everything all together in order to move on with your life. It was a lesson both he and Evelyn learned that day, in very different ways, and something that would stick with both of them. It was a new memory made, and Jack had no doubt that their father would be immensely proud of them both.