Chapter 14

I headed for the camper shell again, but when I reached it I remembered that what I wanted was in the trailer. I put the tackle box and other crap I'd had to take out back in the bed and then went back to the group. I managed to make Louise and George understand that they should get into the truck.

Well, actually I made Louise understand and she clued George in the old fashioned way, by telling him. At first I intended to just go back to the trailer and get the net and the things I'd need to set it out, but when I noticed the expectant look on George's face as I started the engine I changed my mind.

After turning around, I took a right when I came to my grassy road and we headed north. I was tempted to try going a little faster than I had on my other trip but decided that this was clearly amazing enough for George at this point in time. He was looking in every direction he could think of anyway, and I saw that he was shocked when he found the rearview mirror on his side.

I don't know what the others were thinking as we went over the hilltop and kept going, but it must have been worrisome. I kept on until I came to the left that would take me across toward where Woodville wasn't.

George was nearly in shock until I turned around and headed back. I don't know if he thought I was taking him to the happy hunting ground or not, but he had been getting a little antsy. Louise hadn't been, since this wasn't her first truck ride. She'd just kept smiling and stroking my nearest thigh.

George calmed down when we headed back and by the time we met the first of the ones that had tried to follow us, nearly two miles north of where they'd been when we took off, he was back in form.

I could tell they had been beating feet big time since they were all winded, so I stopped, let down the tailgate, and made them understand that they could sit on it. When we left again I stayed in low gear, just crawling along. I didn't want them to be hurt if they decided to bail off. We only had one more to get, he'd been coming too but must have given out sooner.

When we got back to the starting point most of the ones standing around were giving me suspicious looks, as if I'd tried to steal their George. He got out giving them a piece of his mind and in a minute or two we were all friends again. Finally, I drove over to the trailer and took out my new net and the floats and weights I'd need to set it out.

In less than half an hour we had it in the river and at least the Indians seemed to understand it's purpose. Back on dry land I was glad to see that a fire had been started and that some of the fresh alligator was already being readied for ingestion. Hell, I could use a snack.

By the time we'd all had a nice meal of alligator tail and then sat on our asses for about an hour it was time to deal with the net. Sky seemed happy when I asked him to go with Louise and I to take care of things. I was happy as soon as we pulled up one end of the net, and then I was worried that we wouldn't be able to get through before dark.

It almost looked like the fish had needed to draw straws for a place in the net. Sky and Louise worked their asses off untangling the catch and pulling in the net. Sky finally started throwing the smaller fish back because we just had too damned many. I already knew that the larger boat would have to be used next time.

Sunset was fast approaching when we got done with the net. When we were back on the bank, the women took over the catch while Sky and another brave helped me straighten out the net. We walked it over toward my camper and hung it up to dry on a couple of pines.

It was clear that the women would not be done with the fish cleaning before dark. I was going to turn the truck so the lights would help them but in the mean time I thought of getting them some trash bags to put their fish in. I fetched a box of them from the camper and then went over and made my pickup let there be light .

They were very surprised when I turned the headlights on, and happy after I showed them how to work trash bags. I was surprised that they were done within an hour and a half. Of course there were several of them cleaning and cutting up.

It was probably ten PM by the time they were ready to travel, and I was worried about them trying to find their way home after dark. They weren't worried in the least though, since they didn't intend to go home tonight. I finally noticed them trying to decide where they were going to spread the sleeping furs I hadn't paid any attention to yet.

After a quick hand waving session with Louise, she talked with Rega, and then Rega spread the word and the others began moving over toward my camper to set up for the night. That's what I had intended but I did worry about the fish. I didn't know how they were going to preserve it, and in fact I didn't know about the alligator either. I just had to assume they knew what they were doing with it.

I knew that fish could be smoked but I didn't have any idea how it was done and I didn't know if they did it at all. Surely they knew what to do without my worrying over it.

George had made his exit sometime while we had been dealing with the net. I guess he went back to his camp. Good enough, because my camper only had one bedroom.

Even with all the work cleaning the fish someone had still made time to cook some of them. I hadn't paid any attention to how it had been done but I did pay attention to eating all I could hold after Louise brought me my share. After eating, most of the group retired to their furs for the night. Good, I hoped I'd have enough energy to fuck Louise to sleep.

Even though Louise and I were up and about within an hour of sunrise the next morning, the others were already gone. Louise didn't seem to think it was anything strange so I didn't either. She was also the one who found the alligator meat and fish they'd left for us. I was sure it was more than we'd be able to eat, but what the hell.

Right at the moment though I had to do something with it to make sure we'd get a chance to eat any of it. I decided to try cleaning out my small freezer. The results were better than I'd expected, but I'll admit that most of the free space came from frozen beef and such that I removed to thaw.

I managed to get all of my fish and alligator in the freezer by removing most everything else. When we had things sorted out I knew that we would spend most of the day cooking as soon as what I'd removed thawed enough to start.

At first I was resigned to cooking one thing and then the next but an idea came to me by and by. I dug out a couple of the big cast iron pots I'd bought at the charity sale and after a cursory rinsing I took them back outside and began gathering wood for a fire.

As far as Louise was concerned I could not be trusted to make a cooking fire and she had realized that the cast iron pots were definitely for cooking. She rooted me out of the way and got started. I could live with that.

When she had the fire going pretty good, I put a little water in the pots and put them on, then I began opening the frozen delicacies and putting them in the pots, not paying much attention to what went into which pot. There was beef, pork, corn, peas, and beans and other assorted things. Louise couldn't take much of that either and soon enough I was drinking a long neck and watching her cook.