River Runes
by RC DeWinter
Title
River Runes
Artist
RC DeWinter
Medium
Painting - Digital Oils ~ Paintography
Description
The Fisherman's Tale
I was born to a long line of river rats,
and proud to be what some people call
a swamp Yankee.
We're tough and handy
and can build or fix almost anything,
even if it ain't done in the fanciest style.
There was sevena us when I was growing up,
but my oldest brother Walt...
well, he bought it over in It'ly, Monte Cassino,
and my sister Joanie died
when she was having her second kid.
I guess they never found enuffa Walt
for them to ship home, 'cuz there's a cross
somewhere over there for him.
Nobody here ever had no money
to go over there and see it,
but the army sent us a picture.
Joanie though, she's buried
up in the old Burr Cemetery on Killingworth Road.
I still get up there sometimes if I can get a ride -
eyes ain't too good anymore -
'cuz Dad and Ma and Ellen are there too.
I'll be there myself someday.
Summers I'd be out on the river
with Joe and Eb, Dad and Gramp
almost every day 'cept Sunday.
All us middle brothers learned how
to throw the haul seine out for shad.
We'd come in every night at sunset
with enough shad to feed us for half a week
once they was sold.
They was good days.
The river was thick with shad
and we made enough catching and cleaning 'em
to make it through the year.
It's no easy thing to clean shad.
'Course you hafta gut 'em first,
but then the tricky part starts.
They're fulla bones,
three rows a 'em running down the fillet,
all curved and branching out every which way.
Not ev'rybody can do it, and if you're not careful
you'll get a mouthfulla crunch
insteada meat if it ain't done right.
I remember one time -
I was prob'ly fourteen or thereabouts -
I was in a hurry 'cuz I wanted to go play
some baseball before it got too dark,
but there was a lotta fish to clean.
So I grabbed a knife and picked up
a big buck and made the first cut too fast,
damn near took the middle finger offa my left hand.
Gramp wrapped it up in a rag
and threw me in the truck
and drove me upstreet to see Doc Fiske.
Still got the scar - see?
Dad was pretty mad 'cuz the doc
told Gramp I couldn't do no fishing
for a coupla weeks, and that meant
just Joe and Eb.
Eb was ten and just learning his way around the boat,
so Dad and Gramp and Joe hadda do a lotta extra work.
I didn't much like being stuck at home either.
Walt was already working up at the metal factory
and I sure didn't want to hang out
with Joanie and Ruth - my other sister -
and Thomas was only six.
Ma made me take care a the chickens,
though the girls still had to collect the eggs.
I couldn't be digging around
under those broody hens in the henhouse
with that finger still all wrapped up
the way the doc had done it.
One day while I was still home
Ma sent me to the store to pick up
some milk and bread,
so I grabbed a bike outta the shed
and rode down there.
I went in and got the milk and the bread
and took 'em to the counter to pay
and there stood the prettiest girl I ever saw.
She had long hair, kinda reddish-brown,
tied in two braids, and big brown eyes
and her face was kinda sprinkled with freckles.
Not ugly-looking spots though - these was just pretty.
Just looking at her did funny things to my stomach.
She smiled at me and said, "Anything else you need?"
I could hardly talk, but I said "Nope, that's it."
So she rung up the bread and milk and I paid her
and was on my way out the door
when something made me turn around.
"You must be new here," I said.
I never seen you before."
She laughed and I fell in love.
"I guess so," she said.
"I'm here helping out 'cause
Aunt Nancy broke her ankle.
She still can't stand behind the counter
so Daddy sent me over here for a couple of weeks."
"Where d'you live?" I asked.
"Over Moodus way across the river," she said,
"but we just moved there a few months ago.
Before that we lived up in Coventry."
"Oh," I said, like a jerk. "Well, bye,"
and I ran outta the store.
All the way home I cussed myself for a fool.
I hadn't even asked her name.
When I got home I gave Ma
the bread and milk and said,
"There's some new girl working down at the store."
"Yes, I know," said Ma. "That's Nancy's niece -
her name's Ellen, as I recall."
Ma looked at me hard and laughed.
"What's funny?" I almost yelled.
"Nothing," said Ma,
"and don't use that tone with me."
"Sorry," I grumped and stomped out.
Well, that fixed it.
When I was old enough to drive
I made it my business to find Ellen.
Wasn't hard.
Ev'rybody eventu'lly knows ev'rybody
in these small river towns.
Long story short,
soon as we was done with high school
we got married.
Gramp had died by then, and so had Walt,
who never worked the boat anyway,
so it was me and Joe and Dad out there
seining the shad.
Eb was still in school but by then
he'd picked up the trumpet somehow
and was out playing in a dance band
insteada fishing.
I spent my life on the river
and never had no complaints.
I was married to the prettiest girl
in the world and even though
for some reason we never could have no kids
we was real happy.
Even when the state changed the regs
for shad fishing - cuz for some reason
they was getting scarce - I still managed.
Somewhere around her sixtieth birthday
Ellen found a lump. You know where.
She took herself off to the doc
and they did tests and took x-rays
and did everything else they could,
including cutting her up pretty good,
but two years later she was up
in the old Burr Cemetery
with the resta ev'rybody else
who'd already passed on.
Life's never been the same since.
Oh, when somebody with a car comes and gets me
I still go out and play cards sometimes,
or go down to the center for a few beers,
or like I said, up to the cemetery,
but nights are hell.
I miss her so much.
I never looked at another woman
the whole time she was alive
and never saw no reason to once she was gone.
On nice nights I walk down to the river
and sit on a rock - our rock -
right down in the mud close to the water.
I look at the patterns the ripples make along the edge,
and the way the sun going down
lights up the reeds and rocks
like they was feathers and jewels
and I cry.
Ellen oughta be here with me,
holding my hand and laughing at my stupid jokes.
Well, one a these days I know I'll see her again
and we'll be holding hands somewhere else.
I know it won't be in hell, 'cuz if I'm with her
wherever it is will be heaven.
I'm not gonna do nothing stupid,
'cuz I know she wouldn't want that,
but to tell the truth I can't wait.
My pretty girl's been gone 20 years now,
and I'm more than ready to be wherever she is.
~ copyright 2014 RC deWinter
The summer sun sets on a secluded stretch of the Connecticut River shoreline in Chester, Connecticut.
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Uploaded
September 11th, 2014
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