“When really it was the most wonderful experience of all of our lives,” Meelie added dreamily. “We stayed with our Otis grandparents back in Atchison for a whole year while our parents set up the house here in Des Moines. We were finally reunited last year,” she added happily.
Before Felix could comment, Pidge started up again. “Our mother teaches us at home so we get to play all the time and make up games and go fishing.”
“I’m exceedingly fond of reading,” Meelie said. “Pidge is not so fond of it.”
“So am I!” Felix said.
“Have you read a hundred books?” Pidge asked him. “’Cause Meelie has.”
“I also keep a scrapbook of newspaper clippings,” Meelie continued. “I collect stories about women who got successful doing men’s things, like directing movies or working in advertising or running businesses or even mechanical engineering. Or even,” she added, “being a lawyer!”
“Our mother’s a lawyer,” Maisie said.
Meelie stopped walking and scowled at Maisie. “She is not!”
“Yes, she is. She works at Fishbaum and Fishbaum,” Maisie said.
“Hmm,” Meelie said, and started walking again.
“Is she successful, though?” Pidge asked. “Like Grandfather Otis? Or more like Father?”
“I think somewhere in between,” Maisie said.
The Des Moines River appeared over the next hill, wide and glistening in the sunlight.
Meelie led them to the spot she said was best to catch perch, and without hesitation took worms from a can she’d brought along and stuck them on the fishhooks at the end of each line.
“If we catch enough for dinner, Mama will fry them up for us,” she said, handing first Maisie and then Felix a fishing pole.
“There’s nothing like fried perch,” Pidge said happily.
Meelie unfolded a handkerchief and set it on the grass.
“Snacks,” she said, pointing to the red radishes there.
“Meelie loves radishes! I told you so!” Pidge said.
Felix wrinkled his nose at the radishes and the worms wiggling at the end of the lines and the smell of wet dirt and river water that filled the air. Maybe Maisie thought this was the most perfect place in the world, but Felix wasn’t so sure.
He watched as Pidge took her thumb and pressed the line right above the reel against the fishing pole. Then she flipped something on the reel. And without letting go of the line, she pulled the pole back and cast out.
Felix watched as first Meelie’s, then Pidge’s line seemed to fly far out over the river. They reeled them in just enough to keep the line snug.
“Why are you two just standing there?” Meelie asked Maisie and Felix.
Slowly, Maisie tried to imitate what Pidge and Meelie had done, but her line flopped like a cooked noodle and fell right at her feet instead of anywhere near the river.
Felix didn’t even get that far. When he pulled the pole back, the line dropped behind him, too.
Meelie laughed, hard.
“Just keep practicing,” she said.
Maisie’s face set with determination. She tried again and again until finally, triumphantly, her line dropped into the water.
“There,” she said, satisfied.
Felix tried just as many times, but the line tangled or drooped or went nowhere at all.
And everyone, including Maisie, ignored him.
Maybe, Felix thought, if he stood on one of the rocks in the shallow part of the river, when his line didn’t cast far enough, it would still drop into the water at least.
“So,” he said, trying to sound casual, “I’m going down there to fish.”
The three girls kept their eyes on the water and their own lines, waiting for a nip or tug.
“Yup,” Felix said. “I’ll be down on those rocks.”
“I got one!” Maisie shrieked as her line bent into an arc.
Meelie grinned and guided her, telling her to stay calm and do this and that. Felix had stopped listening and instead made his way down the embankment to the river. There, he stepped onto the first rock, surprised by how slippery it was.
Well, he thought, it is in the water. Of course it’s slippery.
Slippery, and too round to stand on, he decided. He took a tiny jump onto the next rock.
“Yikes!” Felix screamed. This rock was not only slippery, it was more slippery than the first one.
Felix struggled to keep his balance and not drop the fishing pole at the same time.
But he failed at both.
The pole dropped with a splash into the river.
And Felix’s feet slipped out from beneath him, sending him into the water with an even bigger splash and a loud grunt.
The weight of his clothes and his shoes kept him from popping back up, and Felix found himself fighting to get to the surface. The water was murky. Slimy, green weeds surrounded him and wrapped their long tentacle-like arms around his legs. There really were a lot of fish in this river, Felix realized as lumpy, brown fish and tiny silver ones swam by.
Pushing upward with all his might, Felix finally broke the surface of the water.