Off the Dock

The water on the lake was smooth as glass when Gabby and her husband Ben made their way down to the shoreline to fish. The plan was to waste some time while waiting to meet up with Ben’s crazy family for a laid back action packed afternoon and evening. The week long founding celebration the town put on each summer was something she always looked forward to. Even before she got married. Somehow after she and Ben got together it became tradition to spend the day with his family at the lake and fight over which spot to anchor the boat from to have an optimal view of the fireworks. It was honestly one of her favorite annual traditions. There was also the festival food which could be found in various spots around the lake and in the last couple years, on food boats floating in between. The food consumption may be regretted tomorrow. Or not. Because festival food is delicious, evil and should be enjoyed to the fullest when one faces it. Gabby was prepared to take the hit when the time came.

Ben threw her a jaunty wave as he went to his usual shore fishing spot just past the docks that had access to a rather nice patch of lily pads and weeds. Gabby considered her dock options and in the end, went to her usual dock to start with. Third one from the right. It was slightly longer than the docks to either side and there was a really nice weed patch growing about twenty feet or so beyond it. After quickly setting up shop, she started casting in the direction of the weed bed. Gabby picked up a handful of new lures to try out that morning that she was kind of excited about. As much as she liked catching bass, she caught a northern out here the last time they came out and wanted to see if she could get another one. Roger, the owner of the bait shop they frequented swore up and down that these were good northern lures. And more often than not, his advice was solid. Though so far this morning, it didn’t seem like any fish were interested in biting.

After casting for about an hour, Gabby noticed that traffic on the lake and at the park behind her picked up quite a bit. Waves on the lake were more constant and a wide variety of boats started crossing this way and that. Deciding it was time for a minor scene change, Gabby packed up her gear and abandoned the dock for one a little closer to where her husband fished. She looked over to give him the usual ‘check in’ wave and noticed he was paying no attention and dancing to something playing on his MP3 player. Though he could be dancing to music in his head. He did that sometimes and wasn’t exactly apologetic about it. They were in public, so she really hoped it was inspired by his MP3 player but was not about to call him out just in case. Either way, he was clearly in a good mood so he must have caught something.

“Goofball,” she muttered with a grin before turning her attention to which dock she was going to lay temporary claim to next. After taking a minute to play the “Eenie-Meanie-Miney-Moe” game she chose the dock she was going to camp out on. Second from the left for the win. Gabby set her gear down, pulled off her sandals to dangle her feet in the water while she switched the tackle out and bobber fished. Gabby contentedly watched the lake traffic while keeping an eye on her bright green bobber that was getting jostled around by the waves but otherwise not showing anything hinting there might be anything interesting happening below. She had to real in a couple times as boats approached the docks. The boaters waved as they passed, a couple asked if she caught anything. Sadly, she was having no luck in the fish department so far.

A man nearby yelled at their kid for running on the dock after a while. Gabby looked back to see a girl, maybe 10 years old or so, sigh with a side of eyeroll before walking carefully down the dock next to Gabby’s when the man Gabby assumed was the girl’s father turned around to help a little boy get into a pair of water shoes. The girl pulled a little black notebook from her backpack and seemed to be studying it for a moment before scrutinizing the dock below her with what looked to be an intense frown. Odd kid. She didn’t miss the attitude filled glare the girl shot her when they made eye contact though. Gabby looked back at the father, silently wished him luck and turned her attention back to her bobber. Which bobbled oddly for a minute or so before disappearing into the lake. That looked promising. Carefully standing up, she tightened the slack in the line and counted to 10 before setting the hook. Whatever was on the other end of her line took off and the fight was on. As she concentrated on reeling in whatever it was on the end of her line, she felt and heard footsteps on the dock behind her. Assuming it was her husband with a net she was kicking herself for not grabbing earlier, she didn’t pay any attention until she was shoved off the end of the dock and immediately swallowed by the water. Luckily, it wasn’t very deep there, so Gabby floundered for a moment before making contact with the lake bed and furiously popped up. After clearing out the water from her eyes Gabby looked at the dock to see that the demon child was standing there, little black notebook in hand. The kid paid no attention to Gabby as she inspected the dock planks.

“What is your deal?” Gabby spat out angrily as the girl’s father stomped down the dock towards his daughter. Gabby noticed her husband rushing over to them as well.

“Why did you do that?” the man yelled at the girl before turning to Gabby, “I’m so sorry about that ma’am…” Without waiting for Gabby to say anything back to him, he practically dragged his daughter back towards shore.

Demon Child stomped her feet as she followed him and spat out, “She was in the way Dad. If I read the clues right, it should be around here somewhere. Not like she was doing anything important.” That was when Gabby realized she was no longer holding on to her fishing rod. Swearing a little she scanned the water around her. Her husband arrived with a beach towel on his shoulder, stood with a scowl and crossed arms while the man read his daughter the riot act next to him on shore. He shot her a look that asked if she was all right, she gave him a terse nod, glared at the kid and turned her attention back to the task at hand. Ben could handle them while she went fishing for her rod. Quickly scanning above the water, Gabby saw her green bobber floating a little ways out so clearly she lost the fish. Taking a deep irritated breath, she quickly swam to where the bobber was and used the line to lead her back to her rod which had settled in among a weed patch a few feet out from the end of the dock. She grabbed it and awkwardly made her way back. Reaching the dock she placed her rod on the planks when something on the underside of the dock caught Gabby’s attention. Interest piqued, she took a closer look at it and saw a 3 or 4 inch gold disc taped to the bottom of the dock planks. Without thinking twice, Gabby grabbed the plastic covered disc and stashed it in her fishing vest pocket as she made her way out from underneath. Glancing back towards the shore line, the demon child and her father were gone, so clearly she wasn’t getting anything like an apology from the kid. Ben appeared at the edge of the dock, quickly reaching out to pull her from the water. As soon as she was out and steady, he threw his beach towel over her shoulders.

“You OK?” he asked as he hugged her. Gabby shot him a look of disapproval. He smirked. “Got it… Ok… let me grab my stuff. I was thinking it was about time to work on my afternoon food coma anyway.” She loved that he seemed like he could read her mind sometimes. With a quick kiss, he was off like a flash. Gabby squeezed what water she could from her clothing while she grumbled under her breath about bratty children as she gathered her stuff and made her way down the dock. Ben was packed in record time and met her at the path to the parking lot. As they began the short trek back to their truck, he informed her that the man gave him his card and said to call him Monday. He was also ordered to pass along that the girl was grounded for a week for what she did. Gabby grumbled a little, but was going to let it go. Not like she lost anything but a fish. And probably five minutes off her life due to shock, but who’s counting? Besides the mystery disk in her pocket was driving her nuts. If it was what she thought it was… well it might just make the situation worth the trouble, but she wasn’t about to pull it out in full view of everyone to take a closer look at it. If it was what she thought it was, she was willing to forgive Devil Child for her actions.

Somehow, she kept cool long enough to get to the truck, throw in their gear then climb in after putting a dry towel over her seat to try and keep it from getting too wet. As Ben slowly drove through the maze that was the parking lot, she pulled the disk out of her pocket. After a cursory inspection of the engraved gold colored metal disk, she ripped open the plastic protecting it to read what was written on the back. It was exactly what she thought it was. Her husband stopped at a stop sign, Gabby took a moment to process this glorious thing she was holding and glanced up to see the demon child pouting as she stood next to a van her family was quickly loading their gear into. Looked like their day was done. Gabby locked eyes with Demon Child and lifted the token to the window. The girl’s eyes got very wide as she registered what she was seeing. Gabby smirked evilly and mouthed “I win,” just as Ben took his turn to go. She vaguely heard the girl screech “What?” behind them. Gabby cackled and did a little victory dance. Ben pointedly looked over at his wife when he got to the stop light leading out from the park.

“Clearly, I’m missing something?” He asked. Gabby grinned and showed him the disk.

“So… you remember the list of festival events the town was hosting for this shindig?” He nodded once, clearly waiting for her to continue. “This is the treasure hunt token worth $20 grand.”

Ben glanced at the disk, looked back at her with an amused smirk and asked, “So food is on you then?” Gabby nodded enthusiastically. He made a slow exaggerated fist pump while whispering, “Best day ever.”

Gabby laughed loudly. “You are such a dork.” She loved her husband and agreed, today was definitely one for the books.