Chapter 22: Ocean Size

Heather, Lara, and I emerged from below when we heard the engines of the Valdemar II come down from full throttle. Frej hadn’t taken us too far, given the cold weather and the late hour. Instead, he picked one of his favorite inshore spots. Hans was like a child on his birthday, so we let him have the first line in. Sarah was up on the bridge learning to guide the boat from Frej.

Part of me wanted to return to the relative warmth of the cabin down below. I was having a good time and I felt a little closer to Lara again after the frank discussions that had ensued. There were a few moments of discomfort when the girls pushed things a bit far, but it was a small price to pay to hang out with these two firebrands. On the other hand, sea fishing on a boat was not something I did every day.

We were still getting the second pole ready when Hans whooped. He snagged a striper almost immediately, and soon it came into view.

“Matt, grab the gaff and bring her in,” Frej called down to me.

I took a break from impaling an eel on Lara’s line and grabbed the fish gaff. After a few clumsy attempts, I was finally able to haul the bass into the boat, where it slapped its tail on the deck for a bit. Hans grabbed it and held it up for us to see, eliciting a smile from the whole gang. The girls dropped lines in the water next, and within a half hour they hooked into a couple of small stripers themselves. I was content to watch and help with the process on the boat, since it was too crowded for a fourth fisherman. After Hans happily caught a second, he took a break and relinquished his pole to me.

“Hold on, Matt,” Frej called. “Heather and Lara, we are going to move. Let us see if there are any bulldogs around. The tide is just right, so we may find some stragglers in the area.”

“Bulldogs?” I asked Heather, as she reeled in.

“Blackfish.”

“Cool,” I said, though I wasn’t particularly familiar with them.

Frej soon had us over a spot he liked and hopped down from the bridge to double-anchor the boat. He called on Sarah to ease the craft backward until the fore anchor dug into the bottom. Despite the tethers, the choppy water forced me to keep constant attention on my balance. Frej checked the sonar and then grinned.

“Perfect, dear,” he said to Sarah.

He switched my rod for a different one. “Here, this might work better.” Kicking a small cooler out from under a bench, he pointed to it. “Grab one of those.”

I flipped the lid, finding a small pile of green crabs.

“Rip the legs off the one side,” Frej instructed. “Then slip the hook through the leg sockets. Yes, like that. Good.”

“Is that it?”

“Yes. Now, have you fished for tog before?”

“No.”

“A bit tricky. But as fun as—” Frej checked whatever was on his tongue, his eyes darting toward my mom. He grinned as he continued. “Fun as hell if you nail one. They put up some serious fight! But listen, do not try to set the hook on the first hit. They take a second swallow to get the hook into the back of the mouth, and that is when you have to give it the full set. Arms in the air,” he demonstrated, “to keep them from going back down and hiding in the rocks. Then bring them in firmly.”

“I’ll try,” I said, hoping I’d be able to tell.

“Okay, let her go. Hans, let me hook you up on the other side here.”

I dropped the crab into the water, waiting for the thunk of the sinker hitting bottom. I kept my rod tip loose, adjusting the height of it to offset the significant rocking of the boat. We ended up trying a second spot when the action never materialized at the first. I was proud of my mom; by this time she was essentially helming the boat herself on Frej’s orders.

I’d grown complacent when the strike came. That was probably the luck I needed, though. By the time I reacted and tried to set the line – having forgotten Frej’s suggestion of patience – the second take had just occurred. The rhythm of my delay and the fish’s peculiar chewing habits combined to let me hook into a blackfish.

“Arms up!” Frej called, stepping over to me and lending a hand as the fat fish pulled my rod tip toward the surface with surprising force.

“A beast, it feels like!” he cried excitedly.

My feet were suddenly unsteady as the deck heaved violently. For a moment, I had the grand vision of my massive catch causing this precipitous motion as it tugged on my pole. I could see a black fish swimming below the surface, easily half the length of the Valdemar II, and about to give me the ride of my life.

But no, it was clearly a rogue wave that was sweeping past. The boat started oscillating with significant amplitude as the sound of water splashing against the hull became much louder. Frej and I ended up jammed against the gunwale, bracing our knees and leveraging with our feet as the surface of the sea hurtled toward us at a startlingly steep angle.

I heard Lara issue a panicked shriek. She had been standing on the high side and I watched helplessly as the deck of the boat launched her into the air, her arms flailing. I thought for sure she was going to go over. Frej started to move past me, but it was clear that he was too far away.

Only a quick reaction from Heather kept her from flying over the side. With a deft yank on the back of Lara’s coat, she changed Lara’s trajectory just enough for Lara to make an almost graceful landing on the bobbing deck. She came to a stop against the hull with Heather and Frej jumping to her side, offering a final steadying hand as the transients from the wave finally died down. Lara hugged Heather tightly as soon as she regained her balance.

“Everyone okay?” Frej called.

Sarah and Hans answered in the affirmative, having been better settled than the rest of us had been.

“Oh my god! I thought I was going to swim for sure!” Lara exclaimed.

“It’s a bit cold for swimming this time of year,” Heather said calmly. “You really don’t want to fall in the water if you can help it. Trust me! Are you all right?”

Lara nodded, rubbing her leg where it had hit the gunwale. “Yeah, thanks. I’ll probably have a big bruise. Could’ve been worse, though! What was that?”

“It was my giant fish pulling on the boat,” I joked, reminded of the tog by its insistent tugging on my line.

Frej laughed. “A rogue wave. The ocean was reminding us of her size. It keeps us honest and respectful.”

With a last glance at Lara to make sure that she was okay, I returned to reeling, hoping the line would hold. Frej joined me again and helped me stay patient. I had to give just the right amount of fight to keep him on. Lara and Heather moved closer as the tog finally started to flag. I noticed that Lara was holding the rail as she moved, still scarred from her recent flight. To her credit, though, she was smiling.

The fish came into view. I was surprised by its size.

“Smaller than I thought,” Lara remarked.

“But a really nice-sized one,” Frej confirmed. “A beast for sure, by tog standards.”

Heather slipped the net around the bulldog and then she and I hefted it into the boat. From the strength of fight, I was expecting to pull up something magisterial and shark-like. This fish wasn’t a looker, a bulbous face and dull complexion.

“Is it good to eat?” I asked Frej dubiously.

“Sure. Not the most popular fish around here, but it is a good meal. I’m sure Melissa can make something amazing out of it.”

I grinned. He was probably right.

We ended up with five good sized stripers and a few more togs before the cold of the night started to overwhelm us. Well, Sarah and Frej seemed unperturbed, but the rest of us were finished with fishing. Back in the galley, Lara and I were having a lively debate about who came in second, since Heather had landed the champion, a really fat striped bass that was unquestionably a prizewinner.

“Frej said that it was a really big blackfish,” I observed. “And your striper was really small compared to normal.”

“But still bigger than yours.”

“Size isn’t everything,” Heather observed.

“Thank you,” I said to her.

“Easy for you to say, Heather,” Lara replied with a laugh. “You have the biggest one.”

I pressed my case. “I caught a big blackfish. You caught a small striped bass. I should get second.”

“So if I go out and catch a really huge minnow, I should win then?”

“She has a point,” Heather observed.

“Thank you,” Lara agreed.

It was all pointless, so I soon gave up. I would massage Lara, and she Heather. When I pouted, Heather grabbed my hand with a smile of pity on her face.

“Don’t worry, Matt. I’ll return the favor at some point.”

“I’m sure you will,” Lara sniggered. “Don’t forget the heels!”

We were approaching port, so we gathered our things and went up to the deck, watching as Sarah brought the boat carefully into the dock. She needed only minimal help from Frej, who stood alongside her in case he had to take over. He didn’t.

“A natural,” he declared, as the boat glided to a stop.

Heather had already hopped out to secure lines. I tried to do the same, but in my enthusiasm I stumbled, cutting my shin on the deck planks like an idiot.

“Easy there, Matt,” Frej called. “I don’t think you’d find the gaff very comfortable if I had to haul you out.”

“I’m all right.”

Lara patted me on my back. “You didn’t have to do that for my benefit,” she said, pulling her pant leg up to display a purple bruise.

“Hardly,” I laughed. “How’s it feeling?”

“Better.”

“Two of a kind,” I heard Sarah say to Frej.

“No, three of a kind!” Frej countered.

I turned and saw him pointing to my mom’s jeans. There was a rip in one knee where her long underwear showed through.

“Yeah, it ripped when I climbed up to the bridge the first time,” she explained with a little laugh. “I guess we’re not quite as salty as you are, Frej!”

I rubbed my shin as I went about tying off the lines while Frej killed the engine. In short order, we’d pulled the coolers to the dock and closed up ship.

“We will not be able to squeeze into my car,” Frej observed. “Not with the big cooler.”

“I need to take the radio back to the store anyway,” Heather chimed in, patting her backpack. “Matt and I can walk home after that.”

Heather deflected an attempt by Frej to return and pick us up, so I helped Hans heft the cooler full of fish into the car and then watched the four of them drive off. Heather and I made the short trip over to the shops on the far side of the lot where her family’s fish market was situated. The row of stores was obviously deserted with the holiday in effect. Heather quickly unlocked the front door and we stepped in.

“I’ll be right out,” she said, heading behind the softly rumbling display coolers and into the back office, boom box in hand.

There seemed to be very little difference in the air temperature between the store and outside, though it was calmer without the wind. I wandered over to the window, watching the swell of the waves as they traversed past the dock posts. The tide was coming in, refreshing the barnacles and algae that grew thick up to the high-water line. It was an odd world; these things were out there, day and night, summer and winter. Cold water, rough water, salt and spray ... They took no warm Thanksgiving meal, just accepted the twice daily blessing of the frigid ocean with deep gratitude.

I was staring out at the ocean when I heard a familiar click-click from the other side of the store.

“Hmm. I had a feeling!” I sang, without turning from the window.

“Damn,” Heather laughed. “I’m getting predictable.”

“Maybe. But it’s kind of cold to do anything in here, huh?”

“I’m not asking for much,” she said, having come closer to me.

Before I could turn around, something soft bounced off the side of my head. I whirled around in confusion. Then I started guffawing when I saw a familiar pillow in Heather’s hand.

“What the hell? Really?”

“What?” she exclaimed, laughing with me. “It’s for the project!”

“Okay, but you really had that pillow in your backpack the whole night?”

“No, silly, I brought it from the house in the backpack, and then I traded it out for the radio when I came to pee before we went out on the boat. Now I was just coming to exchange it back, that’s all. But since it’s here, we might as well use it. Or maybe you don’t want to?”

“We don’t really need it here. You could scream like hell and no one would hear you.”

“Maybe not. Then again, some people are out fishing tonight. But that’s not the point, is it?” she murmured, licking her lips.

“I guess not.”

We stood for a moment, looking at each other.

“What do you want to do?” I asked.

“It’s your turn,” she said simply. “But let’s make it quick, before they send a car back for us.”

“This isn’t the most comfortable place,” I observed, looking around at the metal and glass. I was reminded of the chill by an involuntary shiver.

“No one said art was always comfortable.”

“Hmm. What’s in the back?”

“Take a look,” she offered, turning around to wiggle her ass at me.

“Not that back!”

I slapped her bum as I strode past her. Heather clicked expectantly along behind me as I entered the office and flicked the light on.

The place where Aongus and Mairead worked every day. It wouldn’t be right. I turned off the light. There was a dark hallway and some more refrigeration, and that was basically the extent of the shop.

“Take off your coat,” I said on a whim. “And your sweater.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

I returned to the front of the shop as she disrobed down to her long sleeve shirt. Then I pushed her back against the display cooler, taking the pillow from her hand and depositing it on the pay counter. My lips searched for hers. She bent backward along the curvature of the glass as I pressed against her.

“Anyone walking by the front door would see us,” I said between kisses.

“I know,” she whispered. “Let’s at least make it a good show, then.”

So Heather wants to play games. I stepped back and spun her around so she was facing the glass of the display case now. My fingers worked their way around her waist. After releasing her jeans, I drew her back toward me and slid her shirt up the front of her body, exposing her tummy to the air. As my hands reached her chest, I pushed her bra up as well. Her middle fully exposed, I pressed her closer to the case. Heather resisted only slightly, taking in a sharp breath as her nipples made contact with the icy glass.

“You were saying about art being comfortable?” I whispered.

“Maybe we shouldn’t be quick,” she managed, her body taut as I compelled her a little more against the cold pane. “What are you going to do to me?”

I let my hand wander down her tummy, continuing into her loosened pants. Soon I reached what was surely the warmest place in the room and worked my fingers in. With my free hand I pushed her jeans down her legs, feeling a rush of arousal as she wiggled her hips to help. In the dim light, the bright flare of her waist was electric.

The headlights of a car from the parking lot bathed us for a moment. This gave me pause, but it was just someone leaving from the far end of the lot. I pushed against Heather again, kissing the back of her neck. She resisted a bit more now, so I bore my weight against her with more intensity. I won the battle and she hissed loudly as her tummy was forced against the cold glass. I increased my hand movements below, simultaneously freezing and heating her up.