When Scott had finished their nightly reading together, and had tucked the quilt around Charlie, she said,
"The kids are going fishing again."
"Are they?" he asked.
"Yes. Can I-" Charlie caught herself, "May I go with them again?"
"Tomorrow?" he asked.
A plan had been forming in Charlie's mind during the evening, where it had settled, and she had been mulling over it. She'd thought
she could claim to fishing, and do a bit more investigation of the old man. If she went with the other kids to Jason's grandpa's pond, and
only stayed a short while, well, that wouldn't be lying then, exactly. Would it?
After all, she would go to the pond first.
"Tomorrow. Or the next day," Charlie answered.
"Well, it has to be one or the other," Scott said. "Otherwise, if you're late getting home, we wouldn't know if you were fishing,
or if something was wrong."
"Oh. Well, tomorrow, then," Charlie told him.
"I suppose it's alright," Scott said, but he was smiling.
L
The next day, Charlie left for school, carrying extra food in her lunch tin. Maria had packed it for her, telling her to share
the cookies with her friends while they were fishing.
Charlie felt a momentary feeling of guilt, but she pushed it down. Maria was just being nice. There was no need to feel
badly for her kind act. And, Charlie told herself that she would, indeed, share the cookies. At some point.
Charlie had to wait for the first recess to talk to Rebecca about the after-school plan.
Rebecca looked startled. "Golly, Charlie," she said, sounding breathless.
The girls were sitting under one of the large Oak trees in the school yard. "Don't you want to know?" Charlie asked
Rebecca. "Aren't you curious?"
"Well, yes," Rebecca admitted. "But I'm scared, too."
"We won't go that close," Charlie said. "I just want to look at it from the back side."
"What about Jason?" Rebecca asked. "He won't go along with it. And he'll tell my Pa."
"Then it'll be just you and me going," Charlie said, and ignored the second flicker of guilt at trying to trick Jason.
Rebecca agreed, though still somewhat reluctantly. Jason, when told, said he was too busy to take them fishing that
afternoon.
"We'll go alone," Rebecca said, sounding confident.
Jason eyed both girls, looking somewhat suspicious. "Wait 'till tomorrow," he advised. "Then I'll go with ya."
"We want to go today," Rebecca maintained.
"I don't think I can go tomorrow," Charlie added, for good measure.
Jason looked unhappy, but the teacher was ringing the bell to return to the schoolhouse, so he said no more.
After school, the girls made quick work of exiting, and were running on the road out of town, before Jason could
catch them.
They walked past the tar paper shack, and continued to the barn, grabbing a pole each, and trekking to the pond.
"This way, we can say we really did go fishing," Charlie said.
Rebecca gave Charlie a startled look. "Does that make it like not lying?" she asked.
"Well," Charlie considered. "Not exactly." She cast her line into the pond water, remembering what Scott had said
about listening to her conscience. And all those lines that he'd made her write, too. 'I will listen to my conscience', over
and over.
The girls were silent, fishing, but no fish attempted to snatch the bait.
"We should be going, I reckon," Rebecca said finally.
Charlie nodded, and they stood up, gathering up the poles and their school things. They began to walk back, and came to
a point where Rebecca stopped, and pointed. "That's the back way," she said.
Charlie and Rebecca exchanged a long glance. "Maybe we hadn't ought to," Charlie said.
"You don't want to now?" Rebecca asked.
"It is like lying," Charlie said.
"Yes."
After another long moment of quiet, Charlie said, "Let's just go the regular way."
She could tell Rebecca was relieved.
So they began to walk on, until the small shack was in view.
"He's sitting right out front!" Rebecca said.
And, he was. The two dogs were there, as well, lying beside the man. He was seated on a bench, and appeared to be
working with something in his hands.
"What do we do now?" Rebecca asked, in a loud whisper.
"We walk on," Charlie said, trying to sound braver than she felt.
The girls began to walk, slowly, and when they came closer, it seemed as though the man was going to take no notice
of them at all.
No shouting. No threatening. He kept whittling at the piece of wood in his hand.
Then, just as nice as you please, he looked up, and said, "Hullo." His voice was soft. It had a lilt to it, Charlie thought.
Neither girl spoke at first. They just kept inching past, keeping their eyes on him.
"It's a fine afternoon," the man said then.
Rebecca reached for Charlie's hand.
"Yes," Charlie acknowledged. She was more curious than ever. She sensed no danger from this man. Or the dogs. The two dogs
had neither one raised their heads to look at the girls. No barking as they had the day before. And, the man. He was calm appearing.
And, his voice. There was something about his voice that was different from the afternoon before.
"Fish not biting today?" he asked then. He'd stopped his whittling on the small piece of wood, and was looking directly at
the girls. Charlie stopped walking, and Rebecca did too, bumping into Charlie's side.
"No," Charlie said.
"Well, there's always tomorrow," he said. He turned his attention back to the whittling project. "Good day to ya," he said, in
the same lilting voice.
The girls walked on, and Charlie looked back only once. The man had gone. Either inside or elsewhere. The dogs were still
there. But, the man was gone.
L
The two girls puzzled over the strangeness of it all. That the man was so very different than he'd been the day before. That
he hadn't seemed to resent their presence, walking past. That he hadn't threatened them, or hollered. Instead, he'd made
somewhat conversation. Seemed approachable.
"It's like it's not the same man at all," Charlie puzzled.
"I'm glad that he didn't holler at us today," Rebecca said. "Or wave his gun around."
The girls made a pact between them to not mention to anyone that they'd had an actual conversation with
the man.
By now, Rebecca's curiousity was peaked, as well. The girls made some plans.
L
At supper, Charlie began to lay the groundwork. She said the fish hadn't been biting that afternoon, and that
she and Rebecca thought they'd try again the next day.
"Just you and Rebecca?" Johnny spoke up.
"I think so. Why?"
"I don't think you two girls ought to be walkin' about by yourselves," Johnny said.
"I don't think so, either," Teresa offered.
Charlie stared at them. She could see her plans swirling away.
"Other kids will want to go, too," she said, choosing her words carefully. After all, she reasoned, other kids would
want to go, if they knew the strangeness of the situation. They'd be curious, too. Just because she and Rebecca had no
intention to tell any other kids, well, that was beside the point. Again, the prick of her conscience at the near-lie. Charlie
pushed it aside.
"May I go?" she asked, turning to Scott.
"We'll see," he said, non-committedly.
Well, that was a very unsatisfactory answer. In Charlie's opinion.
"But, we've planned it-" she began.
"I said, 'we'll see'," Scott said. And, that was that.
Charlie had to tamp down her impatience. She finished her meal in silence, and helped to clear the table when everyone was
done.
She had to take a bath that night, and then there was schoolwork to complete. Once tucked up in bed, she broached the
subject again.
"What about the fishing tomorrow, with Rebecca?" she asked.
"I don't have any objection to you going fishing," Scott began, and Charlie sighed in relief.
Then he went on. "I don't think you need to go every single afternoon, though. There's things you need to do around
here. Jelly could use some help this week with picking the fruit trees."
"I can do that the next afternoon," Charlie promised rashly. "And on Saturday."
"For a while on Saturday, maybe. Mr. Beets is going to be here, remember?"
"Alright. But, tomorrow? Is it alright if I go?" Charlie persisted.
Scott moved his arms, putting a hand on either side of Charlie, and leaning down just a bit.
"I'm getting the impression that there's more to all of this than just wanting to go fishing," he said.
Charlie felt her face turn warm. How did he do that? Sometimes it was as though he could see into her thoughts.
"Is there?" Scott asked. "More to it, I mean?"
Charlie reached up to touch her warm cheek, not even realizing that she did so.
"I like having friends," she managed.
"I know that. That's not what I asked you."
"I'm not doing anything that's bad," Charlie said. After all, trying to get to the bottom of a mystery wasn't a bad thing. Was it?
Scott regarded her seriously for a long, long moment. "Alright. You can go fishing tomorrow. But the rest of the week you
come home after school. Agreed?"
Charlie nodded, relieved that he'd given permission. "Agreed."
L