Chapter 39

“Who IS THAT!!?” Max asked.

“Liz,” Jw said.

“Never seen her before,” Max said. “And I would remember.”

“You have, you know,” Jw said.

“I would never forget THAT,” Max vowed.

“Sure ... she complained about the kid feeding ice cream to the stray cat.”

Max rumbled around in his mind ... lightning. His jaw dropped.,.and Elizabeth Anne Boleyn walked through the salon front hatch.

“Hi Max ... you’re staring.”

“Miss Social Worker?”

“Yes,” she said. “Up here ... my face is up here. Max ... what color are my eyes?” She slipped a finger under his chin and pushed. His mouth shut but she kept pushing ... up.

“Blue ... blue ... cornflower blue ... blue like the sky at noon,” Max said.

“Slick ... very slick,” Miss Boleyn said.

And Murray dove off the trampoline. A flurry in the water and the cat started swimming to the stern port side sugar-scoop. What he had wasn’t very happy about it.

JW shouted, “Tyke ... incoming. Get that.”

Tyche was doing airplane things ... she had a checklist just like a real aircraft and she was checking it twice. It’s just as bad to have the RC controller run out of electric juice as to have the battery on a giant scale RC receiver quit. Ya can’t fix it over the lake. She put down the handheld Fluke meter and jumped down to the sugar scoop.

Murray couldn’t navigate the swim-ladder ... not with a Coho longer than he was. Tyke reached a hand behind a gill and tried to lift.

“Daddy ... little help here.”

“Max ... give the kid a hand,” Elizabeth said. “You need to get used to kids.”

Well ... that was cryptic ... and prophetic ... poor soul.

The Bengal wasn’t letting go until the fish was well and truly landed. Max whapped the Coho in the head with the pommel of his belt knife ... couple of flops and the fish met his expiration date.

Murray let go. Proud cat. Proud WET cat.

Max looked at Murray ... Murray looked back.

“Fishing license?”

If a cat can laugh ... if a cat CAN have a sense of humor ... Murray laughed.

“Thought so,” said Max. He looked at the mess of kittens creating a mess of salmon ... then he looked at the expired salmon on the deck. “You have reached your legal limit of Coho for the day ... no fishing until tomorrow.”

Elizabeth Anne Boleyn said, “I don’t like fish. Where are you taking me for dinner?”

Tyche Selene Flintkote grinned, “Yet.” she said.