Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you.
ARROW - 121. Chapter 121
In the morning, the boys couldn’t sit still. I had arrange for the ladies to take a tour featuring some of the other works by Gaudi. The tour included lunch. I also arrange for the hotel cooking staff to prepare 10 lunches for us to take to the boat. We were ready to go and Alesander showed up. “I didn’t expect you this morning. Have you had breakfast?”
“No, but I’ll pick up something as we walk to the boat. My grandfather is very excited about going out today.”
“Wait” I went and wrapped some eggs, bread and sausages in a napkin. “Here, eat this as we walk to the boat.”
I noticed he only ate one egg, and half of the sausage. I knew the rest was for his grandfather. I hoped that the fishing will be good today.
Arriving at the boat, Alesander’s grandfather was standing on the deck smiling. He was ready to go.
Boarding the boat, I gave him our lunches, he put them in the helm. Started the boat and we headed out to sea.
I am not sure who was prouder, the grandfather or Alesander. It was evident both of them loved fishing and having clients made their day.
We seemed to being going out quite far. “Alesander, how far are we going?”
“Grandfather has a special place to fish. He doesn’t have enough fuel to go out this far but you paid to fill his fuel tank. I know he hasn’t been out this far for a long time. You’ll see, I bet you we will get a full load.”
Just as Alesander finished telling us that, the boat stopped. Grandfather started to hand out fishing rods using crabs as bait. The boys were excited, the dads played it cool but I know they were just as excited.
It seemed that the line was in the water only a few minutes when Ronnie ’s line went taught. “Hold on to it Ronnie “
Alesander helped Ronnie to land the fish, grandfather had the hold open. It was a big fish, Colin took a photo. That seemed to have been a good omen in that just as Ronnie’s fish was placed in the hold, the boys began to catch fish. The Dads seemed to have no luck and then I caught on. The Dads didn’t have any bait on their lines. Grandfather’s smile told me that he will have a full load.
We fished until about 1 when we broke for lunch. Before we pulled in our lines, Alesandra took what looked like cages, cleaned a few fish adding the entails to the cages, then dropped them over the side of the boat.
The boys wanted to get back to fishing, but they needed to eat. They may have not noticed but I did watch them drop food over the side of the boat.
After lunch the boys continued to fish. I think the dads were more interested in helping the boys. Grandfather, told me to bring one of the cages up. At first I didn’t see anything and then I saw it was full of shrimp. It didn’t take grandfather long to dump the shrimp, add more bait and drop the cage back into the water.
I watched Grandfather take a few shrimp, peel away the front half leaving the tail section. They section he ate, smiling, “Good taste.”
Now the boys had to try, so Grandfather showed them how to clean them. They smacked their lips as they tasted their first raw shrimp.
Just before we were going to pull anchor, John’s rod almost bent in half. Grandfather and Alesander helped to land a bluefin tuna I estimated the weigh to be at least 90 lbs. From that moment on, we began to catch quite a few tuna of various sizes. It didn’t take long to fill the hold. The boys started to pull the cages up and they were loaded with shrimp and a few had lobsters. Now we couldn’t wait to go fishing tomorrow.
Arriving back at the dock, “Colin, take Alesander and go and see Marko. He’ll buy the shrimp and lobster, not sure about the tuna.”
Colin took some pictures and left with Alesander, Ronnie and Ivan. Tommy and Richie stayed and caught crabs from the wharf. The fishermen dropped the internals from cleaning the fish into the water for the crabs. That was were the fishermen got their bait, at least that is where Alesander’s grandfather got his bait.
The Dads and I helped to clean the fish. By the time Colin, Alesander and the boys came back, we had the largest fish cleaned. Some women stopped and picked out a fish. Alesander’s grandfather looked at us, since we paid for the fishing trip, theoretically the fish was ours. I nodded and he sold the fish after he cleaned it. There was no scale but I think Grandfather knew most of these people. I heard him charge one woman the price of two euros. That fish must have weighed at least 3 1/2 pounds. Grandfather offered the money to me, I told him to keep it.
Colin and the boys returned with Marko and Alesander. Alesander showed Marko the shrimp and lobster in the traps. He offered a price for them, Alesander looked at me, I saw his Grandfather looking at me and then the lobster and shrimp. “Alesander, if you think it is a fair price accept it.”
“Sir, if you buy some tuna, you can have the shrimp and lobster at your price. Notice how fat these shrimp are, they have eaten well.”
Marko looked at me, I was laughing.
He haggled a little with Alesander and then they came to an agreement. But Alesander had to deliver. I told him I’ll help him deliver. How we were going to do it, I had no idea. I was hoping Alesander knew someone who could deliver. He didn’t, but Grandfather knew some one who for a fee would deliver the fish. I made sure Alesander showed him where to go. I gave Alesander money to pay the driver after the fish were delivered.
We made arrangements with the Grandfather to take the boat out tomorrow. I gave him money to fuel the boat, saying good bye, we headed back to our hotel, I wanted to wash off the fish smell and check on our Moms and Marie.
“Boys, go to your room and take a shower, put your clothes on the floor, you’ll need to wear them tomorrow when we go fishing, again.”
‘Let’s get clean and dressed for dinner. Then we can check on the ladies.”
Forty five minutes later, we met downstairs. It was our turn to listen to the ladies as they told us about their tour.
Entering Marko’s restaurant, his brother had already set up our table. “I think Marco remembers us.”
This time I didn’t want the paella, the women and Colin ordered that, I wanted to taste some of the fish we caught.I told our waiter to give the boys what they wanted. I started to laugh, they had some of the paella and a piece of the tuna I had. They looked at me as I laughed, smiles all around. How could I have been so lucky.
Walking back to our hotel, “Dad, are you going swimming with us?” How could I say no.
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- 32
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you.
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