Chapter 25

I was headed back to my cabin when I ran into Bill and Norma heading down to the dock.

"Hey Dave, how's it going?" Bill asked. He had his tackle box with him.

"Pretty good, I think." I said. "You guys headed out?"

"Yeah," Bill said, "Just for a little bit. Wanna come along? We've got extra poles."

Norma chimed in, "We've got lots of leeches."

"Uh..." I started.

"If you don't like leeches, we've got lots of other snacks along." Bill said.

Norma cracked a smile at that and said, "And we have lots of beer in the cooler too."

"OK then," I said, "you talked me into it."

We headed down to the dock and Bill and Norma loaded their gear into their boat. We headed out and started through the maze of little islands to the west of the lodge. After a while, Bill shut off the engine and lowered the trolling motor near one of their favorite fishing holes.

We fished for a while, talking about nothing in particular. They had lots of snacks in the cooler, as well as lots of cold beer, which we worked at while we fished.

I had to ask Bill about how their water skiing episode had gone with Judith at the wheel.

"Bill screamed like a little girl!" Norma said in response. "Judith reminds me of how Louise was at her age."

"Was Louise that competitive and crazy?" I asked, my interest piqued.

"Louise was hell on wheels, but I guess you know that." Norma said, opening another beer. "She hadn't settled down very much by the time she met you."

I opened another beer myself and said, "Louise was only shy and reserved for about ten minutes after we met. Then again, that was at a party after the homecoming game, and we were both partying pretty hard."

"We had some pretty wild parties, didn't we?" Norma said, realizing she had a fish on her line. She played the fish expertly and Bill scooped it out of the water with the net. He removed the hook and held it up for Norma and I to admire before returning it to the water and releasing it. After she re-baited her hook, she cast her line out again.

"Norma's got a new boss at work." Bill said handing me a fresh beer and fishing one for himself out of the cooler.

"Really?" I asked, looking over at Norma. "Is he nice?"

"It's a she." Norma said, looking over at Bill and rolling her eyes.

"Yeah," Bill said, "and Norma thought her plan to screw her way to the top was goofed up, but it turns out that her new boss is bi and was putting the moves on Norma last week!"

"Really?" I asked, looking at Bill and then Norma. Norma just nodded and waited for Bill to carry on.

"I told Norma we could go down to the Pleasure Palace when we get back and pick out a nice strap-on." Bill said with a big grin.

Norma rolled her eyes and said, "Only if I get to try it out on you first."

Bill and I grinned at each other.

Just then, Norma jerked her line and started reeling. She obviously had something big on the end of the line.

"Looks like Norma's got dinner for us!" Bill said, putting his rod down and getting the net ready.

Norma looked at me and rolled her eyes again. Whatever it was on the end of the line, it wasn't putting up much of a fight. As she continued to reel in the line, a muddy pair of swimming trunks emerged from the water, dangling from Norma's hook.

"I'm not eatin' that." Norma deadpanned.

"Yeah," I said, "I think catch and release is better in this case."

Norma held the trunks near Bill so he could disentangle them from Norma's hook. Bill dipped the trunks in the water, and rinsed the worst of the mud off of them, then wrung the excess water out of them and threw them on the bottom of the boat.

"Saving them for later?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"They'll make a fabulous addition to my wardrobe, don't you think?" Bill said.

Norma gave Bill one of her looks and said to me, "He can use those to replace the ones he lost when he was water-skiing."

"Oooh," I said looking at Bill, "you didn't tell me you lost your trunks."

Norma chuckled and said, "That was the best part!"

"Let me guess." I said. "Judith was driving the boat."

Norma and Bill both grinned and held their beers up in a toast. I toasted them back.