"Now it just makes sense that a special fish ain't gonna go for no boring wiggler." Hickory said, "Cause lord know's I've tried near anything else I could think."

Hickory stood on the bank - he had ten fishing poles in the water rigged up and ready, each with its own type of bait because that market had quite a few booths and somebody knew what he liked, knew he had plenty of marbles and that he damn near bought the whole booth each time he went-

Had he gotten a few bites? Yes -

"Hickory!"

Regular ole fish, and boy, what a treat to set the hook and reel them in, just knowing it was gonna be special - that the fish was gonna be...well, Hickory didn't know what to expect -

Was it just gonna be really big? Was it gonna be glowing? Purple?

What if it talks?

That was the only thing he was worried about, really, cause he knew he didn't have the mind to go cutting a talking fishes head off, not even if it made fun of him - he'd probably like it more, an honest fish like that - now if he had a list of questions ready for a talking fish? Just in case? That he'd get a few answers out like where the most fish liked to hang out? What they liked to eat - they could be buddies...

Hickory was prepared -

Alas, there was no need because the fish he pulled onto the shore were big and fat catfish, or just ambitious little ones. He'd also snagged a few sun perch in between and they were tasty, too, so easy to catch they were nearly boring. You fried the whole sun perch cause the bones were so small, the fins were crunchier then potato chips cooked up - which meant you didn't have to clean them just catch, cook, and eat -

Simple -

What wasn't simple was catching those special fish - he was shamed to say, they'd gotten the better of him, he tried red worms and crickets, tried minnows and liver, tried spinners and salami -

"Hickory!"

He'd even threw on some of Ma's fried cat fish wrapped in a bit of pantyhose, and it felt like a sin -

Something got it, alright, but no magic fish and it just meant there was one less bite for him to enjoy - He'd tried using a net, tried going in and opening his eyes to see - nothing - swimming about waiting with breath held -

The water was clean but not like a swimming pool, he couldn't see all the way through, even if he could see better then he remembered...

Hickory had even tried praying for one of those fish to nibble, because - well that was just the world they were in now. Hickory tried making fish noises - and wondered why he'd never tried doing that before cause he knew it worked for coyotes. If you made the sound of a hurt rabbit - a coyote would come running sometimes...

The problem was - what sort of sound did a big ole wounded worm make? Lying there just ready to be eaten? Practically begging...

Of course he'd been doing that already without even realizing it - because wasn't it? That he was fishing and not only failed to catch a special fish, but also failed to catch more than just a touch of May's hand?

That pole was ready and set - that he was just looking for an invitation to whip it out because he was tired of dry casting, tired of just practicing and imagining what it would feel like to reel her into his arms and lay her down on the bank -

It was like tears of frustration leaking out of him, the dreams he had of her, shameful -

"Hickory!"

Of course he had to plan these things out, had to do something -

His book had an answer, maybe? That he could catch them fish if he had the right bait - and if fish ate bugs then wouldn't magic fish eat magic bugs?

He needed that Insecterrariam....

The picture looked like a bunch of stone bee hives the size stacked up in a pile - similar to the Hatchery - though you didn't have to put it by the riverbank, you didn't have to put it next to water at all. You just stuck it somewhere and it made bugs - and the bugs were good for all sorts of things that were hardly worth a mention -

That fish bait wasn't mentioned at all? Well, once more it was a fact that the book had a whole slew of issues not worth wasting time thinking about -

"Oh boy!" Hickory whooped as one of them rods bent down, he set the hook and started to reel -

"Hickory! I know you're out there!"

Shoot, Weston was getting close, and it wasn't like he didn't like the fella, they were buddies - there were just some things you didn't share with your buddies - Like this secret fishing spot -

That Hickory felt himself torn cause it could be a special fish, he almost cut it free and ran to hide, but - he wasn't too worried because Weston didn't like to fish, he never talked about it, never said he was going fishing...

He landed the fish just as he heard Weston crashing through the grass and it wasn't a special fish, but it was a nice one!

"What are you doing here, Weston?"

"I need to show you something. It's important."

It was something in his voice, that Weston normally wasn't one for talking - not much, and really it was one of Hickory's favorite things about the fella - that and he always brought the good beer when it was his turn - there was really a lot to like about him, putting it like that -

Hickory gathered up his things and followed which took a good minute -

They didn't have to go far, not to his hatchery. Right away Hickory could tell something was new, it was making a noise. He ran past Weston, clattering and splashing water from his fish bucket, hurrying to see. He dropped his poles and set the rest down, it was doing something. Every day the fish hatchery just stayed there all quiet, not making a peep, but now?

Water was bubbling in one of the little ponds, it was making gurgling noises, and as he watched -

Whoosh -

It sounded like a toilet was flushed...

Hickory walked around it and heard all kind of noises, gurgles and burps, whirring and clicks - and didn't he feel proud of what he'd done, this miracle -

-Splash -

"That's my dinner!" Hickory said - and, another of the pools, the one Weston had just thrown his catfish in started to bubble, too - Hickory stared at it. Then he watched as Weston dropped one of his perch into another pool, it bubbled -

Weston stared at him -

Hickory stared back, and then at the pools -

Weston threw in another fish and it bubbled, there was another whooshing sound, churning and - perhaps you would think that Hickory would be purely elated, and perhaps it was just that near on almost completely -

There was just one niggling shadow cast upon this glorious moment, one doubt - but it wasn't -

Hickory had never felt truly stupid - and that's because he wasn't, he just hadn't known, "Weston you're just about as smart as they come, ain't ya?"

Weston glared -

"I mean how'd you know to put fish in the hatchery? No wonder I ain't caught none of them special fish if the dang thing wasn't turned on!"

Weston asked, "It didn't tell you to put fish in it?"

Hickory looked back, "Hell no! Not a word about dropping a fish in them pools, nothing in the pictures either, I reckon it makes a good bit of sense seeing as I had to put something in the loom, but that was in the drawins."

Weston looked surprised, like he was thinking - always thinking, Hickory had guessed he was too damn smart, like Hunter, sometimes, but seeing as he'd got them fish a bubblin? Weston was just smart enough - the real question here was why - why was Weston so interested in -

"Could you read it to me? The part about the fish hatchery?"

And then Hickory understood, that he felt an awful understanding, that he felt a shroud of suspiciousness come over him being faced with just such an understanding - "Now, Weston. You never mentioned you liked to fish before."

Gotcha - it flashed clear on his face -

Weston realized Hickory had found him out, that he had not been half as subtle as he'd intended, that finding out if Hickory could read without offending him had backfired, because he had to know, had to know if Hickory was intentionally working against him, his family, his trust misplaced - or if it had just been ignorance - but now?

"And now you just show up poking around my hatchery? Putting all sorts of thought into it, thinking I wouldn't know what you were really after..."

The change? Hickory had just been the happiest he'd ever seen him but that vanished, he now looked at Weston with eyes of accusation, it was like a slap -

"Hickory - I, let me explain."

"Oh you got some splainin' to do, ole' boy, pretending to be helpful so I'd trust you just so you could get a hold of my secrets." Hickory laughed - "You must take me for a fool."

Weston felt himself pale - because how could he explain? How could he - Hickory was right, even though Weston had changed, had begun to think of him as a friend -

"I can just see it, you waiting til I'm busy, waiting til I'm pulled away and out fighting then what, you gonna come back down to the water and leave me with nothing." Hickory said, and the betrayal was so clear in his voice - what wasn't there was anger. There wasn't even surprise, like he expected it, had refused to believe it only to discover his hunch was right - wasn't that worse?

Hickory had known it was Weston that had fought him at the Font!

That he'd still given Weston a chance, buried his doubts - then confronted Weston immediately, like a Man, when Weston had dug them up...

'Know a man's business and keep to it.'

He'd known better, that Grandpappy's words before had just meant that women handled the subtle arts, the information arts - because men weren't equipped to handle them, but as he looked for an excuse for what he did, he realized:

It was a choice. He was caught - caught in a trap with no way out, and his pride?

He felt it - felt it there suddenly, felt how it dangled - like it was about to be hoisted up like a flag or hung, kicking and choking depending on what he did next -

He stood up tall and faced Hickory - met his eyes, "You're right."

Weston would face this moment - what he had brought upon himself - and he would learn from it. He wouldn't beg for forgiveness - he would explain, and face the consequences like he should have from the start, like a Man -

"You're right. At first I did pretend but it was me who was a fool, I thought I was better, I thought you were all stupid and it was all just a game. Then you and your friends showed me what it means to be a man, and - and then I realized I was losing. That you were beating me and I lied to myself, I told myself I was doing it for my family, but..."

Weston laughed -

"I'm proud. I'm competitive - I want to beat you. I want to be better, I want to win."

Weston watched as Hickory nodded - still not angry.

"But I also want to learn from you and to be your friend, I don't want us to be enemies."

"Well I know all that, Weston." Hickory said, "I got the same damn problem between my legs as you do."

"What?"

"I mean, I want to beat you, too, but that don't mean I'm gonna go sneaking around trying to find your secret fishing spots, I'm gonna tell you I'm a better fisherman and it don't matter, me and you can put our lines in the same bucket and I'll catch more en you do."

"You didn't give my families property away on purpose?" Weston clarified, and watched Hickory twist his mouth, the sudden puzzlement, his consternation fading - as though he wasn't sure this had anything...

"Well of course I did, it was that or put them all in my name and try to find who they belonged to, I ain't got time for all that."

Weston paled - "You can do that?"

"Not anymore, I don't reckon." Hickory said, stuttering on a word then shaking his head, "It's irrevo- irrevoca, No, I cain't do it."

Weston felt his body - it felt numb, only partly relief that he'd been wrong, it had been just a small doubt, that Hickory wouldn't do something like that on purpose, but - how many people would have put them all in their name?

How many people would look so casual discussing it - not be furious from the accusation alone, given what their choices had been?

"You're still going to be my friend." Weston said with realization, it was a statement because he knew it, even if he couldn't believe it -

Hickory looked at him like he was crazy -

"Well yeah, I just wish you'd been straight up, I ain't gonna tell you all my secrets but we could have been fishing together this whole time."

It was so stupid - that Weston didn't even realize, how relieved he was - that he had thought he'd lost everything, Bad Blood... He felt his eyes blur, and was suddenly hugging Hickory -

"Eh, there buddy." Hickory said, tapping him on the back, "That's good, now lets not get carried away with it."

"Alright." Weston laughed - stepping back and said - "Thank you."

Hickory nodded, brushed himself off and started picking up his fishing gear - as Weston still marveled, at just how easy, and - how grateful -

"Now all that's out you can get your pole, we still got three more of these ponds to fill and I still need my dinner."

"I don't have a fishing pole." Weston said and it was then that it finally clicked - because Hickory had ten fishing poles, in fact he was struggling to hold all ten, a shotgun, a tackle box, a bucket and an icebox - yet still managed to turn his head at Weston and give him that same look of suspicion from earlier -

He was talking about fishing this whole time...Weston had assumed it was more dumb fishing metaphors! That was the issue. The problem. Assuming.

"Hickory, are you good at reading?" Weston asked.

"Oh, not really." Hickory said, cocking his head - and Weston noticed the grip on his fishing poles relax as he shrugged.

'Know a man's business and keep to it.'

How many problems could have been prevented - if he had only asked, if he had been a friend instead of a subtle woman - it had been another misunderstanding, one because he'd never truly believed that Hickory could be so...he couldn't describe it, but what happened next would shock him further -

"Do you want to get better? Do you want me to teach you?"

"Yea."

"Will you teach me how to fish?" Hickory blinked at him - stared.

"You don't know?" The words were whispered - and Hickory bit his lower lip, and all the embarrassment that Weston had expected to see on Hickory's face when he asked him if he knew how to read was suddenly there, the pity he'd felt for the ignorant child -

Not Hickory's embarrassment, no - Hickory was embarrassed for Weston, and then suddenly Weston was embarrassed just seeing the reaction, because Hickory set his gear down and walked over and gave him a hug - hard. Fierce.

"An Da would be shamed of me, havin a buddy not knowin' how to fish and havin to ask, I ain' no man behavin like that."

Hickory wiped his eyes, and Weston moved in a daze as Hickory gave him a fishing pole, to keep - muttered and pushed him back to where he'd been fishing earlier -

"It's the knots that make it tricky cause if you tie em wrong the fish gets your hook and your bait and them good hooks aint cheap. Only use the barbed hooks if you know you're eating cause it's a booger to get em loose for catch and release."

Hickory taught Weston how to fish - how to cast, how to set the hook and know the difference between a bite and the current, how to look for good spots -

"It's the deep holes you get them big ones, they go down where it's cool and lay their eggs, you can see cause there's gravel from where they sweep the sand away with their fins - that's what makes this spot special, Weston. It's deep and cool here, from the trees, but that ain't all...

"Why it really works is I anchor tires down there spaced out, took me damn near a month to get em all down here and tied right, this is my magic spot so don't go tellin people, nobody knows but me and you now."

It took two hours for Weston to catch his first fish completely on his own, he didn't know what to expect - as his pole bent down nearly in half -

"By the rivers mercy." Hickory whispered - then jumped up, "Reel, reel!"

Weston was trying - he was reeling as fast as he could, but the reel was making a clicking noise, it was slipping - Hickory was standing up, and then - the fish broke water, Weston saw it glittering, bright and shiny, it made a tinkling sound as water droplets twisted off it's spinning body, a loud splash, and Weston reeled it in a bit closer -

"It's special alright, special as a summer breeze."

He fought the fish as Hickory moved, reeling in every other pole, walking them out making sure the lines didn't cross, and Weston found himself sweating, not with the exertion but with the thrill of the battle, of the desire to catch this fish - as it got nearer Hickory pulled a net out and held it ready, as soon as it's sparkling body was close enough he scooped - pulling it ashore -

It was the biggest of it's species, Weston imagined - massive, had to be a world record though he had no way to check, that seeing it had him speechless - especially compared to what he'd dropped into the hatchery just hours ago...

Weston was still panting with his excitement and - well - he looked at Hickory, thought perhaps he'd see some shadow of resentment, that Weston had caught the first special fish, after all the work, after everything Hickory had done for that hatchery and it was all he talked about, but there was just joy, just vigor - a bit of confusion as well, but -

"It's a goldfish." Hickory said, "It's a special goldfish?"

Weston nodded as Hickory guided his thumb into the fishes mouth, showed him how to pull the hook so he could hold it up -

"I mean it's got gold scales. I think it's real gold, I reckon Hunter's gonna shit himself when he sees it."

It wasn't all gold, but it was certainly metal, gold and copper, even a bit of silver or at least polished iron - not a koi, but a fat, big eyed gold fish!

"I just intended to test it." Weston said, "When I dropped it in, I thought -"

They both turned to the goldfish, then looked into the distance at the hatchery, then back - it was huge, almost a foot long. Which wasn't that big for a fish but -

"I think maybe I upgraded it too much, I don't know if putting a catfish in there was the best damn idea." Hickory said and Weston nodded numbly - "You know a catfish can get damn near a few hundred pounds on its own, no magic needed."

They looked into the water - they were silent, but - what could they do now? On one hand, people probably wouldn't go hungry if it was spitting out fish that quick, but -

"Well, good job, Weston. You done it solid, you should be proud of that fish."

It wasn't the fish, not just the fish - but, Weston did feel proud, proud of everything today, they caught more fish until the bucket was full, no more special ones but in a way nothing was as special as the day itself - as just fishing - as understanding more of what it meant to be a man. Of why...

That it was the first day since everything started that Weston truly saw the glass half full, that as so many things were being lost or on the way out - electricity, convenience, oil - so many things that he had cared so much for, that he believed nothing could replace, and was sure without his life would feel empty...

Today felt so full - so complete, suddenly -

That Weston was excited about what tomorrow would hold for him, that the world was truly being filled with magic, that some of that magic was good?

He didn't realize how far he'd lowered his guard, that he didn't notice that people had stopped asking as many questions, that he had stopped - had started adapting, just accepting it - it was no longer faith...because it was so easy to believe what was right before your eyes, that you could see it, touch it, feel it -

That he was caught? Hook, line, and sinker - that he was the fish, being reeled in, that this was all just bait? There was no way to know that...

The very first magic fish was dropped back into the Hatchery - what would happen next? What indeed?