When Uncle John got up from his nap, I sat down with him, and we looked at my list.
“How come you put him there?” he asked, pointing at Phil’s name in the Circle of Friends who weren’t Close Friends.
“I’m just getting to know him.”
Then he pointed at Angie, in the ‘Under-the-Bus’ Circle.
“I love her, but these circles are about trust. She tried to sabotage Tami and me last summer. She made some comments to reporters that essentially unveiled that Dad was Phil’s father. Before that, she tricked Greg into marrying her. And finally, she tried to make money off my son’s birth. Angie has broken my trust on several occasions.”
“What about Tami?” he asked.
I just rolled my eyes at him.
“I wish I knew. She’s now dating Tim. I think she’s right where I need her to be on this list.”
“Did this help you?” Uncle John asked.
“It did, actually. It forced me to consider everyone and where they fit and showed me who I can really count on. I see that it’ll be hard to expand the circle without wondering what their intentions are. I got mad at Teddy Wesleyan for assuming that I was playing on his niece’s affection for monetary gain. While I hope I never get that jaded, I can see why he was so cautious.”
John looked it over one more time.
“I’d suggest strongly that you share this with Paul and with Fritz once we’re home and settled down. They may have some thoughts for you on the ‘how to deal with it’ side.”
Uncle John had a point. I agreed immediately.
◊◊◊
We decided to try for some trout. We talked to one of the men who worked at the resort, and he told us where a good spot was. He suggested that we troll for them in deeper water with a 3-way swivel, a 10-ounce weight, and a flashy silver spoon. I was impressed that Devin had the swivels in our tackle box. I wasn’t sure what they were for.
What you did was cut off two lengths of line and tied the swivel to your line. You tied a short line with the 10-ounce weight to the bottom and then tied the line with the lure to the other end of the swivel. The idea was the weight would help pull the lure into deeper water. It was far enough from the lure that it wouldn’t spook the fish.
He also told us that trout were sensitive to sound. He suggested that instead of letting our lure follow the boat, that we should cast sixty to ninety degrees to the side as far as we could. When the lure finally would get straight behind us for a few minutes, we should reel it in and repeat the process. He said that the sound of the boat would scare them off to the sides.
We quickly found out that fishing for lake trout wasn’t as exciting as the pike had been. It was a leisurely way to kick back and drink beer.
“Whoa, hang on. I think I snagged on something,” I shouted to Paul to get him to stop.
The rod tip was bent down, and then it jiggled.
“It looks like you have a fish on,” Uncle John said.
“Trout are just little fish. We caught them fly-fishing,” I said, confused, remembering a trip we took fishing in a river out west.
Whatever this was, it wasn’t a trout. Paul and Uncle John just laughed at me. Maybe I was wrong. About that time, I guess it got pissed off and made a big run. My reel began to scream as it ripped off line.
“Let it run, and when it slows down, begin to reel it in,” Paul said.
Dad, Phil, and Greg had pulled within about ten feet of our boat since we hadn’t gone that far from the resort.
“David hooked a monster,” Uncle John shared.
“You should video this,” Dad suggested.
Paul got my camera out and turned on the video. About ten minutes later, Uncle John got excited.
“Did you see that?” he asked.
The water was clear, so we could see about eight to ten feet down. In the murky depths, there was a huge fish. There was no way a trout could be that big. I eventually got it to the side of the boat, and Uncle John got it into the net. He hauled it into the boat so I could grab it around the tail and lift it up under its huge belly.
“That’s the biggest lake trout I’ve ever seen,” Paul admitted.
It weighed 54 pounds. We were later told that a fish that big could be as much as sixty years old. The fish was stressed out, so after I got my picture, we put it back in the water. Paul hung onto the tail and waited until it decided it was ready to go back to the wild. I was glad everyone was there to see it.
◊◊◊
“I think David won the largest fish prize today,” Greg announced.
We’d all put five dollars into a coffee mug, and the winner got the money. Sweet! I was $25 richer.
That night, we broke out the cards and played some poker. Phil had some serious beginner’s luck and won ten dollars. It was either that or the fact that Dad had limited Phil’s drinking to one beer.
All in all, a good day.
◊◊◊
Chapter 19 – Bitch, Please — It’s Your Birthday Friday July 1
We were sitting in Winnipeg, and everyone was checking their electronic devices because there was a flood of messages. I was a little embarrassed at the number of emails, text messages, and voicemails I received in a week.
Phil came over and sat next to me.
“I had a good time. Thanks for making me feel welcome.”
“I hope we didn’t give you too hard of a time,” I ventured.
Everyone had pulled pranks during the vacation. Greg and Phil got us with fake orange juice. If you mix the powder that’s in discount mac-and-cheese into water, it makes an orange drink that looks like OJ. It’s quite disgusting. One night, Uncle John short-sheeted our beds. Dad shoved me off the dock into the freezing lake. Okay, that wasn’t a prank, but he was walking like an old man when I returned the favor. Paul even got into the fun and rigged a poker hand so we all thought we had huge winning cards, only to have Paul catch a miracle card to win.
“No. It was all in good fun. I’m glad you’re my brother.”
I smiled at him. After our week together, I’d gotten to know him better, and he was a good kid. A little naïve, but a good kid.
Dad had us rotate boats each day so that Phil spent a day with everyone. I’d gotten him for a morning and then a full day.
Dad told us we had to work it out when Phil tattled on me for calling him out about trying to get a car out of Dad. Greg apparently had sat him down and taken him to task too, so it wasn’t just me.
On our day, he’d caught a ton of fish, with Paul’s help. It was fun to watch the joy on his face when he would hook a nice one.
I came to understand what it meant to be a big brother. That day was a turning point for me as I accepted him. Up until that point, he’d seemed more of a pest than anything else. That, and I’d seen how it hurt my mom when she’d learned how he’d been conceived. That wasn’t his fault, but I’d put some of the blame on him just the same.
I looked over at him as he leaned back on his baggage.
“I am too. When I get back from Japan, we’ll have to hang out,” I said.
“Really?”
“Really.”
◊◊◊
Once we arrived in Chicago, we immediately got our suitcases from baggage claim. The flight to Japan left in two hours, so we took the parking shuttle to the car and dropped off our gear. Paul and I had packed separate bags for Japan, which we grabbed. Paul looked at his phone.
“They’re here,” he said, letting me know that everyone going to Japan had been dropped off.
I gave my family hugs.
“I loved this guys’ week. Can’t wait to see what you plan to top it next year,” I said.
“We could go to the nudist place,” Greg ventured.
“I don’t think he should be allowed to plan anything,” Phil quipped.
Once Phil had gotten over being nervous around us, we’d found he had a wicked sense of humor.
“I love you guys,” I said and followed Paul to where we needed to drop our bags off.
Before we checked them, I made sure I had my passport and new cell phone. That phone would save me a ton of money on calls back to the US. I kept my carry-on and checked everything else. The plan was to go to LA and, from there, start our journey to Tokyo.