The ringing of the alarm dragged me up out of a drunken sleep at four thirty in the morning. I lay there staring at the clock and wondering why it was ringing at this time of the morning. It was nearly one when I had fallen into bed after closing the bar. That rang a small bell in my hazy mind. I had promised someone I would take them fishing but for the life of me I couldn't remember who.
I slapped the clock to kill the alarm that wasn't helping my head a bit and swung my feet to the floor. Coffee would be the first order of business and then a shower. Maybe that would clear the cobwebs enough for me to remember who or at least where. I hated when I let my alligator mouth overloaded my hummingbird ass.
*****
Stepping from the shower, I heard someone beating on my back door. Well at least it was a friend because they all know to come around back. Only the cops, bill collectors, preachers, and salesmen knock on the front door. I yelled for them to come in as I hastily dried off and wrapped a towel around my hips.
I couldn't remember if the door was locked or not so, I hurry out of the bathroom into the dark bedroom and run head on into someone. They hit the floor and I lost my grip on the towel. Not thinking, I reached over and flipped on a light. Bobby, the day bartender at my favorite watering hole was laying on the floor staring up at me, in all my radiant glory.
"Damn!" She said as I jumped back and grabbed for the towel, and beat a hasty retreat back into the bathroom. As I shut the door, I could hear several women giggling and laughing.
Bobby chuckled. "Bill, I've never seen you from that point of view before. It puts you in a whole new light." There was laughter again.
"Ha, Ha." I yelled through the door. "Just like a woman to barge into a man's home, scare the hell out of him, then laugh because he dropped a small thing like a towel." The last I said in a more normal tone of voice.
Bobby's voice comes to me through the door. "That didn't look like no small thing from my vantage point." This time there was no laugh but I could just feel the big grin on her face.
By now, I had on a pair of nylon shorts and a tee shirt. I opened the door and sure enough there was that grin. Just for the hell of it, I put my arms around her and kissed the shit out of her. This is something we had never even come close to doing before but once the initial shock wore off, she warmed to the idea and returned the kiss.
I could feel the steam building in my ears until I heard someone say, "Hey, you guys cut it out or we'll never go fishing."
I reluctantly released Bobby. We stood and looked into each other's eyes for a moment before she turned and walked into the living room. At least I had wiped that grin off her face.
Now I was worried about that light in her eyes, if there had not been someone else here at that moment, we would be fucking our brains out in my bed right now. Bobby is not the one night stand, type and I'm a confirmed bachelor, and I like it that way.
I took a couple of deep breaths and headed into the living room. One look around and I knew I was in a world of trouble. I headed on through to the kitchen and poured myself a cup of strong black coffee.
"If anyone wants coffee, it in here and you can serve yourselves." I sat down at the breakfast table and watched them file in.
Bobby is a flirt and a tease with a good sense of humor and is at the present between boyfriends. Kelly was married until a few months ago and is now divorced. What she's doing here I don't know, as she has something against me, and for the life of me, I have no idea what it is.
Carol is the last through the door but not the least. She goes out with a lot of different guys all of the time but as far as I know, she lives and has lived alone for quite some time.
How did I let myself get talked into taking this bunch fishing? I must have been really drunk, really early. If I was smart, I would tell them all to go home; that I was too hung over to run a boat and the lake was going to be to rough for fishing.
I tried it but Bobby laughed and told me, "Drink your coffee like a good boy and the hangover will go away. As for the wind, it won't be a problem as you said you were going to take us up the river to your famous hidden lake. You know the place, no one else knows about but you."
When I groaned, she laughed. I looked at her sharply and said, "We do have one small problem. The big party barge won't fit through the cut into hidden lake and my bass boat is too small for all of us to bass fish out of it."
She laughed again and replied, "We figured that out last night remember, that's why we're taking my small pontoon boat and we're not bass fishing. We want to catch some big bream and blue gill."
I sat there thinking hard for a few minutes then shrugged, it could be worse I guess. "Ok, since you guys are set on doing this, I guess we better get the show on the road. What kind and how much tackle and bait do you have on your boat?"
We discussed this as I finished my coffee and made another pot. By five fifteen, we were on the road west.
*****
Launching the small pontoon boat was no problem and we were soon motoring up the river at a fair clip. The sun was not quite up but there was plenty of light for me to navigate by. We had launched at the last bridge on the West end of the lake and had a four-mile run up the river. At that point, a small narrow creek branches to the south.
We moved along this creek at not much more than an idle for about a mile until we come to several fallen trees. To the right is a small cove that looks shallow and appears to dead end. Shutting down the outboard engine, I dropped the trolling motor over the bow and ease into the cove and turned hard left to squeeze between and under two large bushes.
With much lifting, pulling, and pushing we got the big boat through the narrow opening and into a long narrow channel. I started the outboard and idled along until we reach a large open water area studded with large scattered cypress trees.
I made a forty-five to the right and eased along until I crossed a deep channel. I maneuvered the boat in close to a large stump and asked Bobby to tie off the front line. I had her pay out slack as I backed up to another stump and tied the rear line to it.
Letting out line on my end, I moved the boat back forward until it was centered over the channel. We tied off both lines and I returned to my seat at the steering console, killed the engine and propped my feet up.
The girls had been quiet for most of the trip but now they were chattering about the beauty of this spot as they retrieved their rods from under the rear seat. Bobby also got out a large tackle box then stood looking at me.
"What? We're here, all you need to do is fish," I said.
Bobby asked, "Where do we fish?"
I smiled and pointed straight down. Her eyes followed the direction of my finger and ended up in my lap. "That may be well and good but we have worms in the ice chest and it would hurt yours for me to stick a hook in it," she said with a grin.
