The fish had stopped biting hours ago. Although the mosquitos were still going strong. Betty smacked her leg and sighed.
Briley laughed, a glop of peanut butter coated the corner of his plump pink lips. “Should have brought the bug spray.”
She rolled her eyes. “You’re totally right, Aunt Betty is a dunderhead sometimes.”
He giggled, wiggling his rod in the algae tinted water. Bugs danced ripples across the placid lake. Bubbles surfaced next to their boot. A minnow had been teasing Briley all day, stealing his worm before jumping off the line. Briley was determined to catch the thief.
“Don’t bob the line, garcon,” Gerard touched his rod, stilling Briley’s excited movements. “You’ll scare the fish.”
“Garcon ain’t a word,” Briley laughed and shook his head, blonde wisps of hair slipped into his eye, but he did stop jerking the rod. Gerard only smiled.
This morning she’d feared Gerard might do or say something wrong to Briley. But the man had been as patient as a saint. Threading Briley’s hook with one worm after another. Or when he snapped the hook off on a piece of drift wood, he’d rethread the hook again. He smiled and laughed often and Briley had complemented his superior sandwich making abilities-- looking shyly at Aunt Betty and stammering he might love her, but her food tasted really yucky sometimes. To which she’d blustered and pretended to be offended until he crawled over the wooden seat-- worrying her for a split second when the small paddle boat rocked precariously-- and gave her a big hug. After that hug (two hours ago) she’d been chopped liver, it’d been Mr. Gerard this and Mr. Gerard that, and Betty’s cheek muscles were sore from smiling so hard.
Briley held the rod absolutely still, barely breathing, his excitement palpable. Gerard reached into the cooler and took out a piece of ham. He ripped the lunchmeat in half and dropped it into the water with a small plop.
“What are you doin’?” Briley asked.
The ham bobbed on the surface for a moment before sinking slowly in. A silver flash streaked through the water. Briley shrieked. “The minnow. It’s back. Give me a net,” he demanded.
Gerard reached for the green net, and with a swift flick of his wrist, slipped the unsuspecting fish into it. It flipped and flopped, thrashing violently.
Briley cooed and dropped the rod. It thunked on the bottom of the boat. His hands shook as he reached for the net. “It’s so little.” He giggled, and tickled the silvery fish’s belly.
The thing was no bigger than Betty’s pinky finger and she knew they’d have to toss it back.
Gerard nodded. “I think it’s ticklish.”
Briley snorted. “Fish ain’t ticklish, Mr. Gerard.”
Gerard’s eyes widened into a shocked expression. “Non? But see it is dancing under your touch.”
“Naw,” Briley jutted out his jaw, “it’s gaspin’ for air. Here now,” he patted the teeny fish one last time. “I just wanted to say hi. Now it’s time to go back.” He dipped the net back into the water and the fish slid out, taking a moment to right itself before zipping off, disappearing beneath murky waters.
He dusted his hands on his mud stained jeans and grinned, exposing the small gap between his front teeth. “Aunt Betty, I got my costume,” he said, so matter of factly it took Betty a second to follow, then she clapped her hands excitedly.
“Me too! MoComic-con, baby!” They sang in unison and Gerard groaned.
“Next weekend. You’re still taking me, right, Aunt Betty?”
“Yup.” Betty shoulder bumped Gerard. “What was that groan for?”
“Is that not the geek stuff you’d mentioned earlier? With the two men in spandex on your yellow card?”
“Oh yeah,” Briley fist pumped.
She nodded, grinning hard. “And you’re coming.”
A large black bird swooped from one tree branch to another, knocking some fat brown seed pods off the tree. It landed with a loud plop into the water. The ripples reached out to their floating boat.
Gerard groaned louder. “I thought you’d say that.”
“Daddy bought me my Spiderman custom already,” Briley said.
“Amazing or Symbiote?” she asked.
Gerard’s face scrunched into a confused mask.
Briley must have noticed, because he clapped Gerard on the shoulder and very patiently explained that Amazing had bright red and blue colors, and the symbiote suit was covered in black slime from outer space that made Peter Parker kind of crazy.
“Indeed,” Gerard said, then peeked over Briley’s shoulder at Betty with an help-me expression in his eyes.
She covered her mouth to ward off the threatening giggle. But as Briley continued to explain the entire history of Spiderman, and Gerard’s eyes started to glaze, she finally decided to put him out of his misery.
“Monkey butt, time to read. You know you have to get in at least thirty minutes a day.”