Casting Off

By the time they had finished loading up the boat, dawn had arrived. The sun was beginning to slide into view, and the light's reflection off the water was distracting, almost blinding. A gentle breeze tickled their faces. The air was calm, and for that Jim was thankful, most of all for Susan's sake. He had been out on his boat alone a lot since last December, more than he'd ever been in recent years. He felt like a kid again when he was off the shore. Susan, however, did not have her sea legs, and the last thing he wanted was for her to get sick.

"You didn't forget anything, did you Jimmy?" Susan asked, in that maternal tone.

"No, mom." Jim smiled. She still called him Jimmy. Even now that he was in his thirties, already balding, and all his boyhood behind him. He knew why he would always be Jimmy, though. "You sure you're ready?" He asked, looking at her worriedly as she surveyed the ocean.

"I'm fine, dear. Help your poor old mother get on this thing," She said dismissively, rejecting his escape route and then offered out her hand. He held it and supported her as she stepped inside of the little boat, balancing herself first, and then settling down upon one of the wooden benches. Jim gave the boat a little shove and then climbed into it himself, sitting in front of the motor as his mother watched him admiringly. Minutes later, the tide swept them out to sea. Once they were far enough, Jim started the engine and begin to steer them with its rudder as the rotor whirred through the water. Jim used to come out here all the time with his father, and he new exactly where he wanted to go. It took them nearly half an hour to get there, but he did not mind.

"So, how are things at work, Jimmy?" Susan asked, her hands bracing the sides of the boat to keep her from falling.

"I don't want to talk about it," Jim replied, looking toward the east. "I just want to go fishing." That was what Jim and his father had always done. They would forget about their worries, their troubles were left on the shore. Saturdays were spent on the boat, in the middle of the ocean, fishing.