Previously
Only three days into their adventure, our three friends have grown immensely. Preteritus, who spent much of his time reflecting on the woes of his past, has seen a glimpse of how fulfilling life can be by living in the now.
Nunco has recounted how he learnt many of life's lessons by making choices and taking action.
While Prostremo, the consummate planner and wistful thinker, has fallen in love and understood what joy can come from living a minute with sixty seconds of true abandonment.
Electra, who has fallen in love with Prostremo, has seen how the web of friendship can truly unite and strengthen those that are blessed enough to appreciate their friends for who they are.
The story Continued
The glimmer of the lake and the prospect of a tasty fish dinner drove the travellers on to greater haste as they continued on. After a few minutes of stumbling through the heather, which can be quite difficult to navigate through, they came across a small track.
“At last we can get some easy walking, seems like this track was made by deer or sheep” said Prostremo.
“It's funny how wild life always seem to know the right way to go” said Preteritus “they always pick out the most efficient route from one place to another. What is more, the track looks like it going right over to the lake!”
“I guess they don't actually plan it that way, do they Pre” asked Prostremo. “It's ok to have a goal, like they probably did instinctively to get to the lake to drink. I do however see one of my flaws, which was to then have a perfect plan to reach the goal, because I guess life is not always so straight forward.”
“In the human world, we would probably have come up with some learned maxim, such as ‘the shortest distance between two points is a straight line'. Yet in reality, if this path we are on now, was to continue straight, the deer would have had to place some explosive charges on that rock dead ahead, to blast their way through.”
“Like the river meeting the stone?” added Nunco. “Gravity forces the water downhill, and when it meets a stone, rather than trying to force it's way through the stone, it flows around it.
“The same is true in life. When we come across an obstacle, if we were to try and force our way through, and that object was like ourselves, with a mind and feelings, we would create resistance in the other person.”
“Like being told what to do” said Electra pensively as she looked ahead at the shimmering lake, deftly stepping aside to avoid plonking her foot in a lovely gift left by the previous four footed user of the path.
“Exactly” said Nunco. “None of us like being told what to do and we resist it, yet for some reason we always seem amazed when someone resists our ideas!”
“Would your Dad bringing you fishing be a good example?” asked Prostremo.
“Yes, as I mentioned earlier” replied Nunco, “I could see no reason in fishing, so I resisted it. Oh, yes, I still went fishing, because I probably wanted my Dad's approval, but I resented it. It was for that reason that I hated it, and probably why I was completely unsuccessful.”
“You must have caught something?” asked Prostremo.
“I did of course, indeed I solved one of life's great mysteries out on that lake!” replied Nunco.
“Something really deep, I am guessing” said Preteritus.
“Yes it was deep that I found the answer.” said Nunco, continuing “Deep within the lake. I was 7 at the time and we had always wondered what had become of my next door neighbour's old bike; it must have been stolen and thrown in the lake, waiting for me to hook my first catch!”
“Funny guy!” smiled Electra “Well now's your chance to prove your true prowess, we have arrived and I think over there by the trees looks like a good place. What should we use as bait?”
“What's your favourite food Electra?” asked Nunco.
“Strawberries and Cream!” answered Electra, continuing reflectively “Though when I was pregnant, I loved coleslaw omelettes!”
“Yuch!” said Preteritus “Though I don't quite get Nunco's question. What does it matter what Electra likes to eat, should we not be looking for a food that fish like to eat; like worms or something?”
“It seems so easy when it's black and white, doesn't it?” Nunco asked rhetorically “Yet going back to people resisting our ideas, could it not be due to the fact that we express what we want other people to do in terms of what we want to do, rather than in a way that might actually be appealing to them.
“My Dad loved fishing, though at the time I had no idea why, and he thought that I would like what he wanted. In fact he expected me to like what he wanted and he felt it would be a great ‘bonding' experience.
“I would have far preferred if he had actually done something that I really wanted, like come along to one of my football matches and actually feel proud that his son was out there playing. I wasn't much good, but how I tried.
“I guess what I am saying is that everyone is different, and we sometimes must take the time to get to know what it is the other person wants. Only when we know where they are coming from can we be in a position to persuade them to do something which might actually be of mutual benefit.”
“I can't see the benefit for the fish, for being our supper!” Said Preteritus “No seriously, I do see where you are coming from.”
“Ok, you great philosophers, can we get on with a spot of fishing please?” said Electra, slightly impatiently. “Besides, I wouldn't know the first place to look for worms.”
“Try looking under that stuff you nearly walked in” said Prostremo “It may not be strawberries and cream, but maggots sure like to eat sh*t!”
After a few minutes of looking in rather undesirable places for humans to reside, the team had gathered a number of maggots and worms. Electra had decided that this was certainly not a time to assert her gender equality issues and had laid out the tent ground covers so that they could sit back and watch Nunco's new found brilliance at angling, or so they hoped!
After five or six attempts at skewering a wriggling maggot onto the barbs of the hook, Nunco managed to successfully cast out into the lake, complete with perforated maggot, still amazingly wriggling.
After sitting like a statue for about 30 seconds, watching in wonder, Prostremo started to become impatient, saying “Not having much luck are you, how long does this take?”
“Well using my combined experiences to date” answered Nunco wryly “After about 20 outings, I caught 2 fish and a bicycle, so I guess by tomorrow evening I might just have a bite!”
“What's that” exclaimed Preteritus “Did that orange thingy move?”
“Wow, it did indeed, I think I have caught something” said Nunco as he gave a tug on the line in an attempt to secure the hook in the fish's mouth.
Five minutes later after much panting, thrashing around and general confusion, none of it actually by the fish, the intrepid anglers managed to land their first catch.
“What a monster!” exclaimed Electra as she observed 6cm of silver fish flapping on the shoreline, the hook finally out of its mouth. “Guess this will keep us fed for days!”
“No need to be so smart” replied Nunco “I have after all increased my lifetime's tally by fifty percent!”
After about two hours, the friends taking turns at fishing there were eleven fish neatly laid out on the bank, ranging from the first tiddler to a truly decent sized fish of nearly 40cm, weighing in an nearly a kilo, which was caught by Electra.
Managing to keep a feeling of superiority out of her voice, Electra asked “Ok, so who knows how to gut these things, I am sure that we do not intend to eat the whole things. And besides, it will be a lot easier to carry cooked fish that whole ones that are liable to start stinking after a few hours?”
“I did it once before” Preteritus announced “But then again, my grand dad nearly choked on the bones that I managed to leave in. In fact he seemed to think that I had actually taken the bones from all of the other fish that I had prepared and shoved them into his one especially!”
“Ok, you're elected” said Nunco “I can only assume that you learnt from the experience and that you will not try and kill the lot of us. So what goes with fish then?”
…To be continued.
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