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MORNING CATCH
by
Jeanette Cheezum

     It seemed like the alarm went off as soon as Fran fell asleep. She jumped up, not wanting Leo and his father to wait for her.

     The shoreline appeared to be sleeping. She guessed the fisherman were the only ones up around here at this time of the morning.

     While they were pulling up near the old boat, a huge man staggered out of the fish camp.

     “You rid’n out with us, ma’am?”

     “Yes sir.” She watched his huge hands as he loaded some gear onto the boat.

     “White Lightning’s our right hand man,” Leo said.

     Lightning chuckled.

     The air smelled fresh today, and the sun would be peeking out before too long.

     White Lightning was giving orders to the men that only they understood.

     “Would you ride on the top of the cabin? You can see everything and be out of our way,” Leo said.

     The lines were in and the boat was drifting away from the dock. Apparently, the current was strong in this area. She hurried to get settled. It looked like the dock was moving away from them. Fran could see Leo watching her and once she was seated, he shifted the engine to full throttle. She felt pride in her young husband and his daddy. Obviously, they loved their work. They cleared the channel from under the bridge that went over the inlet and led out into the Chesapeake Bay.

     The white caps rippled along the sides of the bow. Leo pointed at a large school of fish. He gave her a wink and directed the boat toward their pound nets.

     “Sometimes we see porpoises out here and once we even caught a sea cow in the nets. We managed to free her and watch her swim away.”

     Then the boat seemed to stall. Leo had cut the engine down so they could pull the nets. The crew slipped on slickers, aprons, hats and gloves and took their positions.

     The pound nets were held fast by poles, which sometimes had to be replaced after storms. Seagulls appeared from nowhere and circled the nets awaiting a feast.

     Every movement was synchronized in order to do things rapidly.

     The sun was beaming down, their shoulders glistening with sweat. Leo was in the middle of everything.

     “He’s a natural.” Jerry bragged. “That boy has fish slime in his veins.”

     Fran looked at the beautiful view. Gliding through the water, she looked for porpoise. Then, as if it were magic, the shore popped up from nowhere. She loved it out here.

     Young boys were at the dock with gaffing hooks waiting to assist Leo and his crew.

     “As soon as we unload the fish, they need to be sorted, weighed and iced down. Then we take them to the distributor.”

     “We got quite a good catch today. I counted eighteen boxes,” she said.

     Jerry was busy loading the truck. “It’s every man’s dream that his son will take over his business someday.”

© 2008 Jeanette Cheezum

Jeanette is a member of The Hampton Roads Writer's Critique Group in Virginia Beach, VA. She's written short stories and flash fiction on several writing sites. She has completed two novels and is now working on a third. Her work has been shown on Gather, Six Sentences, SMITH Magazine, EditRed, Helium and SMITH Magazine's forthcoming Six Word Memoir Book, to be released at the end of the year.