The next morning, Randall got to test out his new watering can. To say it made things easier would be an understatement. He was able to water the crops in half the time, because half the water wasn’t leaking out the bottom of the can anymore.
He was able to get by without watering the cabbages because they were now ready to be harvested. The second set of strawberries and potatoes were close as well. He harvested the cabbages and some of the daffodils that had been growing in planters on the porch. With the flower festival over, he didn’t need so many, but he kept a few just for the splash of color they provided.
He hauled the cabbages and daffodils to the collection box by the road with the help of his wheelbarrow. Otherwise it would have taken him most of the morning to carry everything to the box to be sold.
With the garden taken care of, he decided it was time to look into one of the other areas he’d heard a bit about, fishing. All the farming games he’d played in the past had some way to fish, and some of the rare items found while fishing could be quite expensive. He wanted to try his luck.
Before heading into town, he thought it a good idea to gather some bait. In the pasture area where the ground was rockier, he turned over stones and collected what worms he could find. He kept them in a tin he’d found in the barn that had a lid that screwed on. He made sure to fill it with dirt and poked a few holes in the top so they would get some air. Once he had about a dozen fat earthworms in his makeshift bait holder, he left to go to town.
The sun was sloping upward into the sky by the time he reached the general store. Hank sat on a stool behind the counter, but besides him, the store was empty.
“Welcome, Randall,” said Hank. “Congratulations on your win at the flower festival yesterday!”
“Thanks,” said Randall. “I had a little help from one of the judges.”
Hank chuckled. “I got an earful from another one of the judges last night. Is there something I can help you with?”
“Yeah, but first, I wanted to let you know about some deliveries that’ll be coming in from my farm. I’ve got cabbages and daffodils already waiting in the collection box. Any day now, I’ll be harvesting another row of strawberries and some potatoes.”
“Sounds good. I’ll have Kate make a sign that says, ‘Award Winning Flowers,’ for the daffodils. That should help them sell, and I won’t have to listen to the moans she’d make if she had to help with the cabbages.”
“She made it clear where she stood on the topic when we planted them,” said Randall. “Other than that, I’m looking for some fishing equipment.”
Hank pointed to the back of the store. “One row over from the farming supplies.”
“Thanks.”
Randall passed through an aisle of canned goods to the part of the store where tools and other equipment could be found. The fishing section was about ten feet long, with an assortment of rods on the left side of the aisle and the various bits of tackle on the right. There were also some small nets and wooden traps.
He turned to the rods first and looked through his choices. There were rods of all different shapes, sizes, and materials. The cheapest was an unpolished wooden rod about three feet long. It had a simple spindle on the bottom that could be turned with a small knob on the side to give out or bring in the line. It cost 400 bits, and he’d have to buy the line, hooks, and other tackle separately.
He stepped across the aisle to look at the accessories that went along with the rod. To get everything he would need in order to set the rod up right, he’d have to spend another 100 bits. So he was looking at a 500 bit investment, but he only had about half that.
Dejected, he moved over a row and picked out a couple packets of seeds. He returned to the front of the store and set the seeds down on the counter.
Hank looked over his purchase and asked, “Couldn’t you find a fishing rod you liked?”
“It wasn’t that,” said Randall. “They’re all a bit too expensive for my budget at the moment.”
Hank frowned. “I was going to bring something up later, but now seems as good a time as any. I wanted to offer you a line of credit with the store.”
“You don’t have to do that,” said Randall.
“I know, but after hearing about how our mayor is a dirty scoundrel, my wife also mentioned what you did for Kate. A lot of people would have kept the money, despite knowing what the mayor had done to manipulate the vote in their favor. I feel like I can trust you to pay back what you borrow.”
“Thank you, sir. Like I said before, I’ve got enough crops to harvest in the next couple days that I should be able to cover the cost of a fishing rod.”
“Go grab one and whatever accessories you need to go with it.” Hank picked up the stack of seeds he’d laid on the counter. “I’ll start totaling these up.”
Randall ran back to the aisle with the fishing equipment. He grabbed the cheapest rod, a spool of fishing line, a small jar filled with hooks, and a set of cork bobbers.
When he returned to the register, Hank was frowning as he looked over the seeds.
“Are you planning on planting all of these now?” asked Hank.
Randall nodded. “Why do you ask?”
“Some of these have a pretty long growing time. If you plant them now, they’ll be out of season by the time they’re ready to harvest. While you’ll still get something out of them, the produce will likely not be as good.”
“Would it be a waste of time?” asked Randall.
Hank shrugged. “That’s up to you. If there’s some food you really like, then it might be worth it to grow for yourself. Due to the quality of crops grown out of season, I’d have to give you a lower price if you wanted to sell them. Unless you have an immediate need for some of these, I’d save your money for seeds you could plant in the summer instead.”
Randall didn’t need any particular crops for himself, so he looked through the seeds he’d picked out. “Do any of these have a short enough growing period that they’d be worth putting out now?”
“Probably just the strawberries,” said Hank. “The others will take so long, the summer heat will likely ruin much of the produce. It’d be different if you had a greenhouse, but I don’t remember Jack ever building one while he was living on the property.”
“No, there’s no greenhouse. If I had one, could I grow crops out of season?”
“Absolutely,” Hank said as he set aside all the seeds except for the strawberries. “It’s a great way to keep a bit of cash flow in the winter.”
“Good to know.” Randall set the fishing equipment on the counter. “It’ll likely be a while before I could build one of those.”
Hank punched buttons on the register. “That’ll be 40 bits for the strawberry seeds, and I’ve noted 500 bits given in credit for the fishing rod and tackle. Any payments due for delivery of crops in the future will go towards paying that off first. Also, you can sell your catch by placing them in the collection box.”
“Thanks, Hank.” Randall collected all the items and nodded farewell.
As he was walking out the door, Hank called after him. “Good luck with the fish.”
#
Knowing he could put anything he caught into the collection box to be sold, Randall decided to try his luck in the little creek running along the northern edge of the farm. That way, if he caught a lot of fish, he wouldn’t have to take them far.
He set up on the bridge, leaning against the stone railing on the downstream side. He fed the line through the guide holes along the length of the pole and wrapped it around the reel. He spun the reel slowly to take in more of the line until it was all transferred from its spool to the fishing rod. He attached one of the cork bobbers a few feet from the end and tied on one of the hooks.
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He had to dig in the dirt of his bait box to find one of the worms he’d caught earlier and placed it on the hook. The creek widened into a small pond by the bridge, so he cast out into the middle of it. Then he waited.
To say that it was boring wouldn’t be correct, because periodically the bobber would dip into the water. Randall would pull on the rod and reel in as fast as he could. Most of the time though, the rod would go back to vertical again. He would reel in the excess line to find it had either snapped off near the end or the bait had been taken but no fish had been hooked. He often had to replace the bobber or the fishing hook, depending on how far up the line had snapped.
A couple hours had passed, and he was starting to get bored, when the line finally caught and held. He pulled up on the rod, then reeled as he lowered it to take in the slack. He repeated the motion until the bobber lifted out of the water. He grabbed the line with his hand and pulled the fish up onto the bridge.
The small trout was only about six inches long. It wouldn’t set any records, but it was the first thing he had caught. He’d bought a stringer with a ring on the end of a bit of thin rope, and he fed it through the fish’s gills. That way, he could leave the fish in the water until he was finished. He tied the other end around a stick he found and jabbed it into the ground so the fish couldn’t swim away.
Having finally caught something renewed his enthusiasm, so he attached another worm to his hook and cast into the pond again. He ended up with one more small trout before his supply of worms ran out. He took the two fish from the water and carried them back to the farmhouse.
He probably could have put them in the collection box, but he figured they wouldn’t be worth much. Besides, he was exhausted from a long morning of sitting out in the sun and barely catching anything. He still had some seeds to plant, so he decided to fix the trout for himself.
He started a fire in the stove before looking for some way to prepare the fish. He found a couple metal skewers in the back of the silverware drawer that he figured were for making kebabs. He cleaned the fish and shoved them onto the skewers, placing them over the opening in the top of the stove. The hot air escaping slowly cooked the fish, and he turned them over when one side had charred to a golden brown.
When they were done, he used a fork to remove the soft flesh of the fish from the bones. He wouldn’t win any awards for presentation of the meal, but it tasted good and gave him the energy to plant a row of strawberries where he’d harvested the cabbages earlier that day.
While he worked, he thought about the difficulty he’d had in catching the fish and wondered what it was he’d done wrong. One of the buildings in town he hadn’t visited yet was the library. Perhaps they would have a book that told him the different types of fish and how to catch them. When he finished planting the strawberry seeds, he put away his tools, and headed back into town.
#
The town library was a small two-story building. It neighbored on the cafe, on the south side of the main road running through town.
The inside had an open layout, with about two thirds of the floor space taken up by bookshelves that reached almost to the ceiling. Several rooms were partitioned off in the back, only one of which he could see into since the doors to the others were closed. A woman seated at a desk in the tiny office stood and came out to greet him.
“Hello, welcome to Haven’s library. I’m Lesly.”
Lesly had dark skin, brown eyes, and black hair that was cut short. She wore khaki trousers, a green blouse, and a pair of rectangular glasses.
“I’m Randall,” he said. “I was hoping to get a book on fishing.”
“I’ll help you find it,” she said, “and I can give you a general tour.”
She led him around the small library, pointing at various sections and describing what books could be found there. The fiction collection was by far the biggest, with bookshelves dedicated to one genre apiece. One aisle held collections of poetry. The rest of the space was for nonfiction and reference books. When they finally stopped, the shelf in front of them was labeled at the top as, “Trades and Industry.”
Randall looked through the various books while Lesly searched for those specifically on fishing. Farming appeared to be the most popular topic, with many almanacs and art books filled with detailed drawings of all different types of plants. Other topics included woodcutting, furniture making, cooking, machinery, and animal husbandry. He assumed they held information relevant to the different skills available to him.
After a moment, Lesly pointed to a section of books and said, “This is everything we have on fishing. Was there any particular topic you wanted to read about?”
“Mostly about how to catch them,” said Randall. “I bought a fishing rod but didn’t have much luck when I tried earlier today. I was hoping to find out what I was doing wrong.”
Lesly looked at several titles before pulling one off the shelf. She flipped through it a little to check its contents before handing it to Randall. It was titled, “A Fisherman’s Guide to Haven.” The illustration on the cover showed a man holding what looked to be a catfish in front of a lake.
“At a glance, this is probably what you want,” said Lesly. “It details all the types of fish that live on the island and where you can catch them. It also gives tips like what times of day are best and which baits to use.”
“Thanks, that’s exactly what I need.” He looked around but didn’t see any tables or places to sit down and read. “Is there somewhere I can look this over?”
“Sorry about that. We’re such a small library that I try to use the space for displaying our collection. Most people check the books out and take them home, so I removed the chairs that were out here to have more room for shelves.” She led him to one of the closed doors. “We do have a meeting room if you’d like to use that.”
Inside the room was a table with eight chairs. In the far corners were a pair of lounge chairs with foam padding on the arms and back.
“Thanks, this looks fine.” Randall sat in one of the lounge chairs and opened the book.
“If you need anything,” said Lesly, “I’ll be in my office next door. Don’t hesitate to ask.”
She left him to look through the book. It was divided into two sections, one for fresh water fish and another for species found in the ocean. Each fish had several pages dedicated to it, listing their favorite types of bait, times of the day when they were most active, where they could be found around the island, and even records for the largest caught.
He flipped to the section on trout, since those were the only type of fish he’d caught. Worms were one of the baits recommended for catching trout, but it also said they were most active early in the morning and late in the evening. Apparently when the sun was high in the sky, they tended to hide away.
He picked up all kinds of useful information, but he worried he would forget most of it. He closed the book and went to the office he’d seen when he first entered the library. Lesly sat behind her desk with several books open in front of her. She looked up when he knocked on the frame of the door.
“Was the book helpful?” asked Lesly.
“Immensely,” said Randall. “So much so, I’m not sure I can remember it all. Can I borrow it for a while?”
“Of course!” Lesly opened a drawer on her desk and pulled out a piece of paper. “As long as you’re a resident of Haven, you can fill out this form to get a library card. Then you can borrow books for a span of two weeks.”
She slid the piece of paper and a pencil across the desk. Randall sat down in a chair and began filling it out. The form looked very similar to the one he’d used to register for his account at the town hall.
“What do you plan on doing with the fish you catch?” asked Lesly while he filled in the form.
“I’ll eat some of them,” Randall replied. “The rest I will likely sell to the general store.”
“In that case, I hope you catch lots. Many of the meals I like to fix have fish as the main ingredient, but I haven’t been able to find what I need at the grocery the last couple weeks. It seems that despite being on an island, they got most of their shipments from the mainland.”
“I’ll try my best.” Randall finished filling out the form and handed it back to her. “I’m new at this, so it might take some time before I really get the hang of it. What kind of food do you cook?”
“Fish stews, gumbo, paella. My family is from Puerto Rico, so a lot of what I ate growing up had seafood in it.”
She looked over his form before filing it away in a cabinet behind her desk. She took a card from a small wooden box and wrote his name on a line in the middle of it. When she handed it to him, the title at the top read, “Haven Public Library.”
“With that, you are welcome to borrow books.” She took a card from the back of the fishing guidebook, wrote his name on it, and placed it in a small tray marked as books that had been lent out. “Books are supposed to be due back in two weeks, but as long as nobody requests it in that time, it’s not a problem to keep it longer.”
“Thanks, Lesly.” Randall picked up the book. “If I can get the hang of this fishing thing, I’ll bring you some of my catch for all your help.”
Lesly smiled. “I’d like that.”
#
Skills
Fishing ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
#
Relationships
Hank ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
#
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