My grandpa and I sat in his rowboat on a blistering hot summer day with cane poles in the water. Not even a nibble on the cork. Flies pestering me. I wanted to be interested, but it was hard in the stillness. Then, across the water, I spied a girl about my age, sitting down on her dock, and putting a worm on the hook. “Gramps,” I said, “I bet the fishing’s a whole lot better over there on the other side of the pond.” He looked where I pointed and chuckled. “Let’s try it. I think you are right.”
M.D. Smith of Huntsville, Alabama, has been published digitally on twenty-two sites. Retired from running a television station, he lives with his wife of 63 years. mdsmithiv.com