Fanfare of the Riverbank

-I believe in God, only I spell it Nature.- Frank Lloyd Wright

          I lay by myself, resting my shirtless body on the muddy bank of the river waiting for a twitch. The hot, evening sun of summer beating down upon me, warming me for the coming evening as I soaked it up like a snake. A bell rang its alarm, signaling an intruder upon my pole. I began to breathe heavily, my muscles tensing up preparing for a fight as I leaped up out of the mud, mud dripping from my body. I ran fifteen feet to my right, picking up the pole and tensing the line. I felt the small annoying pull on the line, similar to fighting something like a clam. Past experience told me it was a bullhead. I jerked back, driving the hook into it's hard mouth. I reeled in carefully, passing the trees, stumps, and snags. I reeled in the fish to chest level, then grabbed it across its belly holding it's fins in between my fingers. I took the hook by the grip of my fingers, twisting it out of its mouth. I threw it into a bucket of water with about fifteen other bullheads. I rebaited the hook with worm, casted it out, and then put the pole back. I sat down back in the mud, starting to make a fire.

          When the fire began to crackle, upon came my ears the orchestra of the river bank. It's sweet symphony began to charm my ears and soften my soul. It combined the flowing of the old river, the whistling of the trees in the evening breeze, the slurping of bluegills and bass upon the surface of still pools, humming of cicadas and locusts, and the whoops of cranes made a harmonious concert. Then the raccoons coming from their dens, the muskrats playing on the other shore, the deer traveling to their midnight havens, and turkeys traveling up to their quiet roosts making a soft percussion in the area. The river symphony soon slowed and quieted as it came closer to midnight.

          I sat in the moon's light, quiet underneath the evening stars. Only my breathing disturbed the evening's peaceful orchestration. The small fire warmed me, keeping my body warm. I looked at the poles, all had been just recently casted out with pieces of bullhead on their hooks, each tied in a three way rig in the river. The fire kept each pole lightly lit, just enough so I can see each one. Insects buzzed around the fire, keeping me company on the bank, flying around my head, arms, and body. The darkness calmed my soul, giving me an eerily passive mood in which the entities around me began to reflect. I began to breathe easier, my heart calming with the life around me, and I felt myself beginning to become one with nature. I noticed the life around me began to shift from it's usual place, instead becoming extensions of me, not just the things that exist in time. The river became a voice in which I could hear, telling me secrets of its past, giving me strength in the darkness. The ground became like my brother, holding me close to the earth, sharing with me feelings of calamity and giving me knowledge beyond my years. I held my peace with nature, until a ringing brought me back to the world in which most people live inside.

          I sprang back to reality in an instant. The furthest pole from me had come to life, it shot back and forth in the darkness, as though it had been possessed by some specter of the night. I began to run towards it like a king runs for his sword. I picked up my mighty weapon of the water, holding it fiercely. I tightened the line, and swung back the rod so hard that if I let it go it would fly into oblivion. It struck the fish hard, driving the piercing hook far into the skin of its mouth, setting the hook for a colossal struggle in which man and beast would give their all. My feet dug their heels deep into the mud, regaining its bond with the mud. My pole was pulled hard into the air, like a beam protruding from my body. My muscles began to warm themselves, bulging in their tanned, leather-like skin. The rod began to pull in my hands as I tucked it close to me, bending as the great force bent it towards the river. Then entity began to run with the current, using it as an advantage against me, making my arms strain trying to redirect the force. I swung the rod to my side then, pulling the head of the beast. The drag screamed against the force of such an action, making the orchestra stop itself in silence and two forces took hold of the midnight symphony. Muscles and will to win began to strengthen in both monsters, possessing them with advantages far beyond the other.

          Both creatures were doing every trick they knew now. The catfish used the current, swam to areas where I could loose her, and rolled around twisting the line. Then being myself I used my strength to pull her head from side to side, running back with the pole, and using the current to my advantage. The drag screamed more and more, threatening to break itself, so I switched it too where I controlled it. Adrenaline beat inside of me hard, then I felt it. My line had begun to weaken in the pale moon light, giving the fish more than it should have. Then it ran head long into a brush pile, threatening every chance of me catching the sunken monster. As soon as it had ran into the snag of trees, it's branches cut the line everywhere, it barely holding up. I tried my hardest to muster it out, but in the end, it had been given the ending of the fanfare. I heard and felt the line snap, fraying near her mouth, coming like a whip back to me. The line fell limp near my feet, the pole coming down slowly like a guard from its high standing post. I smiled then as I realized that nature had given me humility in the night. I sat down back in the mud, and smiled as the quiet orchestra came back to it's peaceful song.