Country Time
A woman was pushing a stroller across the pasture so she could show the baby the horses up close. A man across the road was walking down to the pond carrying two fishing poles in his right hand. A neighbor to the left was having a party and the overflow parking was up to the fence. Soft jazz music and polite laughter could be heard. Down the hill some, next to the partying neighbor another group played horseshoes and the fisherman heard someone say in a congratulatory tone something about a "leaner."
A red winged blackbird did battle with a crow and then hovered awkwardly over the fisherman's head.
The woman with the baby said, "see the horsey?"
A small mouth bass felt the vibration of a splash and then saw a pink swirling motion, which it mistook for food and sucked into its mouth. Above the gills and right below his left eye the bass became aware of a hard tugging motion and he swam in the direction of the tug.
There was laughter over the jazz music and laughter over the clanging of horseshoes and the baby across the road in the horse pasture said "hama's." The mother said, "horsey."
Somewhere, a dog barked. Somewhere else a gun was fired. The fish leapt from the pond and did a swiveling somersault in the air. When it landed back in the water there was no more tugging from the left side. The fisherman said, "shit."
Next to the horseshoe match people in chairs facing west were waiting for a majestic sunset that never did quite happen.
A light breeze blew and floating algae along the banks of the pond moved out into the center to form small islands.
People on a porch moved inside.
A truck came down the road and hesitated briefly, before moving on.
The fisherman casted out and landed the pink and brown plastic worm on top of a floating wad of algae. Reeling in he discovered not just the tug of algae but that of a fish. It seemed to be swimming toward him as he reeled it in. At the last minute it made a sudden desperate fighting maneuver but not enough of one before the fisherman had it flapping its gills on the grassy bank. The fish was hooked clean on the bottom lip. Before releasing it the fisherman noticed that the fish had a hole in it just below the left eye.
At the afternoon jazz party the first guest had to leave.
Glancing across the road the fisherman saw no sign of the woman with the stroller.
A cat hunted mice in the tall grass.
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