SUNFISH
Have you ever seen sunfish? They look like this:
You are probably just dying to learn more about them.
When I was a kid, we would occasionally go visit my great aunt and uncle’s summer house in Connecticut. It was near a lake that was stocked full of these motherfuckers. One day, when I was about 8 years old, my uncle and I went down to the water to catch some.
We brought some bread to use as bait and the sunfish we so down for it. We threw a few hunks in and the fish DEVOURED them instantly. My uncle showed me how to cast and reel. I practiced a few times. I was ready!
“Now just hold on one minute,” said Uncle Andrew, “I forgot my hat at the house. You just wait here and I’ll be right back.”
I did not wait. As Andrew walked away, I put a small morsel of bread on the hook and cast my line into the water. Within seconds, I had a bite. For some reason, even though I knew that the lake was teaming with savagely hungry sunfish, I had not expected this to happen. Or for it to happen so soon. WHAT NOW!?
I reeled the sunfish in and just started screaming at full volume. It seemed like the right thing to do.
The fish thrashed around with the hook in its mouth. I pulled it out of the water and watched it dangle on the hook. Then, I put it back in. Then, I pulled it out again. I kept screaming.
My Aunt Cheryl bounded down the hill that separated the house from the lake, yelling, “WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!?!?”
I stopped screaming.
“Oh,” I said. “I caught this fish and I don’t know what to do now! Can you help me?”
“Whhhheeeere is Andrew?” she asked.
“He went to get his hat,” I said.
“I most certainly cannot help you,” said Cheryl, “I don’t know the first thing about fish.”
“Oh,” I said.
For a few more minutes, I continued to do what I had done at first—watch the fish swim around with the hook in its mouth, occasionally lifting it up out of the water. Every so often it would catch a burst of energy and fight me.
Eventually, Andrew emerged and scolded me for having put the hook in the water.
“You shouldn’t have done that if you didn’t know what you were going to do next.”
This is not the kind of statement that a child will ever understand.
Andrew reeled in my line. He took the fish off the hook and threw it in a bucket.
