Chapter 4

Parking his car where he knew there was access to the river Joel saw there was another car already parked there. Since the river was large enough and relatively shallow another fisherman being there did not present a problem. After putting on his waders and taking his gear he walked the fifty or so yards to the river. This was a very scenic area because of the tall stately trees.

As Joel approached the river he saw the other fisherman there and watched him as he flexed the rod and cast his line. No question that man knew what he was doing. To Joel it was like he was watching an instructional video on how to fly fish. In moving closer to the river Joel still was watching this man and when he turned Joel realized that it wasn’t a man fishing there but it was a woman. He gave her back the waive she gave him when she saw him. He decided to walk a little further upstream before he waded in as he didn’t want to interfere with her fishing efforts.

His fishing efforts were another story as they didn’t go well initially. One problem was when his fly became tangled up in a bush behind him which took some time to untangle. Once that was done he did manage to catch two trout which were landed and released. Another good size fish released itself when it wrapped his line around a fallen tree branch and broke the line. After these frustrating incidents Joel knew it was time to take a break and went back to where he had placed his backpack. He sat himself down on the trunk of a fallen tree and after fixing his fishing line he decided it was time for a snack. Joel took out a bottle of water and a pack of chocolate chip cookies from his back pack.

The lady who was fishing must have thought it was also time for a break because she stopped fishing and waded out to where Joel was and sat on another log.

“Hi, I don’t know if you remember me but my name is Erin Connelly. We met at the PTA meeting when you first came to town.”

Joel did remember Erin as she was one of the better looking women in his opinion that attended the meeting. He had observed that when he met her that she had a nice figure and seemed like a pleasant person.

“Of course I remember you as I remember all the good looking women that I meet.”

Giggling she thanked him for the compliment but said she thought that was just a line he used.

“Of course it’s a line that I use with all the pretty women I meet.”

Erin giggled some more.

Joel offered her the other bottle of water he had along with a package of cookies which she accepted and thanked him for.

They had a conversation of how things were going for Joel at the clinic and he gave her the straight story that things were going good largely because of the volunteers that were generated because of the talk he gave at the PTA meeting. He said that they really helped him because they did quite a bit of the administrative work.

Joel asked her about herself and she told him that she was the second grade teacher and also mentioned that she was single. In looking and talking to her he thought she was attractive because she had what he would call the All-American tomboy girl look. He enjoyed talking to her and it seemed she enjoyed talking to him.

There was the sound of thunder in the distance which could in a short time because of the approaching dark clouds curtail anymore fishing. That cause Erin to say, “I’ll tell you what, how about we each catch a trout and then we go to my house to cook them for dinner and avoid the coming rain. To make it competitive let’s make it that the last person to catch a fish gets to clean both fish.”

“Since I was watching you fishing and could see you are a better fisherperson than me I guess I better start looking for my knife.”

“Maybe not, walk out to the middle of the river heading for the large tree over there and cast toward that big bush which is to the right of it.”

Joel did what she said and on his third cast a trout inhaled his fly. The trout put up a good fight but Joel was successful in landing it. With a smile on his face he turned to show Erin the trout and saw her already standing on the rivers bank waiting for him. He could see her holding her landing net that had a trout in it. It didn’t take him long to gut the two fish with Erin watching him and supervising while he was doing it.

Joel followed Erin’s car to her home. They didn’t go into town but rather she drove and turned on to the driveway of an isolated one story farm house. At first glance the house appeared to be a well-constructed home. Joel in doing a three hundred and sixty degree turn noticed the tall television antenna but he didn’t see another residence in the area.

He followed Erin into her home and was greeted by an excited but friendly Irish setter dog. Erin told the dog she called Truman to calm down. She pointed out a liquor cabinet to Joel and asked him to make some drinks while she prepared dinner. Joel made the drinks after adding some ice to the glasses from the modern triple door refrigerator. Joel handed her a drink then took a seat the breakfast bar watching her prepare dinner.

He said, “Before coming inside I looked around and I didn’t see another home. Aren’t you somewhat afraid of living here all by yourself?”

“Not really as I have my four friends who take care of me. One of my friends is Truman who you have already met. My second friend is Smithy, that’s my name for my nine millimeter Smith and Wesson. My third friend is Brownie which what I call my double barrel twelve gauge Browning shotgun. I recently added a fourth friend, an AR-15 which I am calling Art.”

“I can see you are well protected.”

There was more conversation but in a short time they sat down to a dinner of oven baked Trout, microwaved baked potatoes and a garden salad. Joel complimented her on an excellent dinner as they drank a cup of coffee.

Joel had to admit that he had a very nice time with Erin and the time seemed to have flown by. In looking at his watch he saw where it was time to leave and the rain had let up. Joel stood to leave and asked, “I would like to reciprocate for this excellent meal and take you out to dinner. Would it present problems for you if we were to go to Ken’s next Saturday?”

“No problem for me but the tongues are going to wag when they see me going out with the handsome PA.”

“And you accuse me about giving you a line? Give me a break! Anyway, let those tongues waggle because it isn’t going to bother me.”

He drove home having some pleasant thoughts about Erin. She was an interesting person who from what she said was an independent person and could take care of herself. He already was looking forward to being with her again.

There was a change for the better thought Joel when he along with all the other PA’s received an e-mail from Karl the administrator of the hospital. In the e-mail Karl said that there will be a meeting this Thursday at three. He asked the PA’s to clear their schedule so as to be available for the meeting. What was different he said that this meeting and in the future most of the meetings will be held via Skype rather than having all of the PA’s drive to the hospital. Joel could mentally hear the other PA’s applauding this change.

On Thursday when the meeting occurred Karl more or less repeated what Val had said about the thirty five foot mobile testing motorhome which he said they are scheduled to receive next month. He also said among other things that he is giving out to the various drug sales people that come to the hospital the locations and hours of when the PA’s are scheduled to work. He said he was doing that because the sales people usually are very generous in leaving samples of drugs which the PA’s can distribute to their patients and maybe have them save a few bucks.