| As soon as they reached the first trot line they knew they had at least one nice fish. The line was bouncing up and down and being pulled deeper into the water. Since it was tied off to a tree branch there was a lot of give in the line. No chance of it being broken. it turned out they had only one fish on the line but it was about a twenty-pounder. They wrestled it onto the boat and decided to go ahead and skin it and fillet it in the boat. It was a nasty job to do in the bottom of the boat and it resulted in them getting much less meat than they would have if they had taken the fish back home. Still it was more than enough for the three of them to take back and cook for a early morning breakfast. The boys finished cleaning the fish fillets and then headed for the area where they always hung the fish heads. The one downside to where they hung the fish heads was the smell. They would stink if they weren’t taken down and there was always one or two which didn’t get taken or that were only partially eaten. So when the boat was coasting up to the tree branches the boys were overcome by the stench of the dead fish heads. The hanging branches reminded Arnold of long, outstretched arms reaching down to the dark water, pointing at it with their thin, stick fingers. It momentarily took their focus away from what was going on in the water so they had only a split-second to react when the creature rose up out of the water right in front of the boat. The stench of death from the dead fish filled their lungs as they gasped at what they saw. next page |  |