"Haha! I know right? Nothing is normal in Gravity Falls!" Wendy Corduroy lifted her freckled face from off her bedspread where she had been trying to muffle her laughter and looked at her young friend.

"Heehee! Oops! Ugh! (cough cough)" Dipper chuckled and then choked on his popcorn.

"Whoa, you alright man? Here, have a drink." And Wendy handed him a bottled water.

Dipper gulped it down and wiped his mouth with his arm.

"Thanks Wendy." He twisted the cap back on and laid the bottle down. "But there is some normal stuff here in Gravity Falls. Even boring stuff, like fishing."

"Oh, don't go there man. Fishing in Gravity Falls is not only not boring, it is dangerous! And not just to the fish!" And she smiled at him with a look that said 'I know you are going to ask me a question…'

"Oooohhh kaaaayyyy…how can fishing be dangerous? Falling asleep and falling into the lake?" and he smiled.

The redheaded teen girl threw a popcorn kernel at the younger boy and hit him right on the nose.

"OK man, you asked for it!" She swiveled around from her tummy down prone position on her bed and sat up cross legged Indian style, facing Dipper.

"My mother took me fishing, and we caught some huge fish! And never used a pole or bait!"

Dipper looked at her with squinted eyes. "Say what…? How?"

"Well, it is easy, but…well it is a little unconventional…"

…

Fran Corduroy had no problem finding a small enough tree branch that was just the right size for carving an oar light enough for an eight year old child to hold, even though the child was rather tall for her age. A few days later when her husband Manly Dan handed it to her, smoothly sanded and polished, she nodded at him and he winked at her with a smile that managed to peep out from behind his red goatee.

"Don't let her lose it, sugar!"

"Oh honey, you should know me by now." And she leaned up on tip toe with a pucker, grabbing his collar to pull herself up whilst Manly Dan leaned down. Their kisses were always a mutual effort as she was so much shorter than him, but he never missed a chance to get one of her kisses.

Fran walked out of the wood shop and back out to the truck, where eight year old Wendy Corduroy was waiting. A canoe was tied to the back bed of the truck, and as Fran hopped into the cab she handed the oar to the little red headed, freckled face girl.

"Wow! Thanks mom!"

"You can thank your dad when we get back. He loves kisses!"

"OK!"

Fran lifted the small canoe off of her head and set it down in the shore, only half way from the shore into the lake water. She nodded her head towards the canoe while holding it steady and Wendy climbed in, small oar in hand. Then Fran picked up her backpack and placed it very carefully into the canoe, and then with a shove launched the boat into the water, while quickly hopping in herself.

"Now!"

And Wendy started paddling while Fran took her full sized oar and paddled too.

After fifteen minutes of paddling, Fran lifted her oar out of the water and set it down.
"OK Wendy, this is good."

"OK mom." And she placed her oar on the boat bottom too. She looked around at the ripples from their canoe as they slowly spread and flattened out.

The glorious view of nature was too breathtaking even for an eight year old. The vast calm lake stretched out for miles in all directions except for the one where they just paddled from, bordered by the continuous lush mountains, thick with green pines and Oregon flora, all beneath a pure blue sky dappled with little fluffy clouds, and set in calming scent of pine and water, and the smell of her freshly sanded oar, the woodworked scent a natural complement to the paradise that mother and daughter floated in. She turned back to the business at hand.

Wendy watched her mom open the backpack. But then…
Wendy smiled with her mouth hanging open as she watched Fran take out a large cigar, and place it in her mouth, then striking a match on the abrasive cap of the match container, she puffed and puffed until a glowing ember was steadily smoking.

Fran said nothing but smiled at her daughter, then looked around the water.

"Watch for fish jumping sweetheart."

"Yes mommy." As if on cue they heard a small splash and looked to the side, just in time to see a ring of ripples spreading out.
Suddenly Fran reached into the backpack again and produced a stick of dynamite! Wendy's eyes grew large.

Before she could ask a question or do anything, Fran held up the short dynamite fuse to her cigar and when it began sparkling, Fran started counting and then tossed it towards the ripples. She reached out quickly to Wendy's shoulder, to be sure the young girl felt safe, Wendy thought her mother could surely hear her little heart pounding outside her rib cage in expectation of the impending explosion.

KA-BOOM!

Wendy shut her eyes and grabbed her mother's knees with one hand and bowed her head, and covered herself with her other hand as water splashed the two and rocked the boat. When she opened her eyes she heard a flapping sound and there in the boat were several fish! Her mom proudly picked up the biggest one, a bass.

"Well, your father will enjoy this one for supper tonight!" and she winked at her daughter. "OK, your turn next!"

Wendy smiled ear to ear and reached out enthusiastically to the next stick her mother was handing to her.

"Wait until the next fish jump!"

"Yeah!"

They had to wait for a while as the first explosion had scared away the fish. But soon another splash, this one farther away, but with a deeper plunking sound that made it obvious a larger fish was around.

"Quickly sweetie!"

Wendy held the fuse up to her mother's cigar and when it began sparkling her mother shouted.

"On three! One, two, THREE! THROW IT!"

Wendy threw it as hard as she could towards the ripples, but in her adrenaline pumped muscles she threw it too far, and the stick's arc took it a dozen feet past where the fish jumped.

KA-BOOM!

Again, water splashed down on them, but this time something large but soft hit Wendy in the head, and she almost fell over.

"What? What the..."

She looked down and there was a flopping fish twice as big as the first one! Three feet long!

"Oh Wendy! Good catch girl! I am so proud of you!"

And taking the cigar from her mouth she hugged her little redhead, both of them smiling as the big fish flopped around.