A life story

[Duke41]

When I was a younger man I played Rugby for URI. I had a real good friend on the team, Wild Bill. As we grew older we drifted apart, jobs, kids etc… Then one night Bills wife called me to tell that Bill was in the hospital with some blood disease and was very, very sick. I rushed down to Jersey to see him. It was all I could do to keep from crying. Here was my strapping 6’2” buddy reduced to sickly, yellow, pale skinned man. The doctors we trying lots of tests to figure out what was wrong with him. We spoke about the old days, how we use to kick ass on and off the field, we talked about our wives, our kids,life in general. We agreed that next summer we would go striper fishing and let him hunt that cow he always wanted. When I drove home I wondered if I was going to see my friend again. I also thought about how much we take for granted. Our health, our friends, our family, the fact that we live in the greatest country in the world. By the grace of God go I.

After 3 months of tests and treatment Wild Bill recovered. He went back to work and was fine. He called me last October it was about 8 months after the scare. Coming up to Rhody and I want to catch that cow you promised. So Bill met me over at Goat Island we jumped into Surfrunner and off we went. It was a cold rainy overcast day, foggy and snotty so I knew it would be a great fishing day. We rigged up some live eels and dropped them over the side. Bill told me how he would think of this fishing trip when things got bad and he envisioned himself catching a 65 lb monster. I gulped and told him that the hummock we were going to fish had been producing stripers regularly all fall. After about 2 hours of not catching a thing I was on the ropes. This was the spot that had been producing steadily and now there was no fish to be found. So I started the engines and headed out the bay. Stopping at my other back up spots….nada..zero…zilch.. We headed out to Brenton Reef but the swells were to steep for me. After about 4 hours on the water we had zero fish. I was getting bummed, here was my friend that had gone through so much, all he wanted was a cow and I was not producing. I admitted that I was out of ideas and asked him if he wanted to go in. He said “Let’s try that first spot one more time”. So of we went over to the bridge and down went the eels. As soon as they hot the bottom wham, wham we had a double hook up. I knew right away that mine was a bluefish and I thought well at least we caught something. Bill was fighting a blue as well I thought. As he reeled in I could see that he had caught a nice striper. She was 37 inches long. I pulled in a large blue fish we kept both fish. After fishing another 30 minutes and getting nothing. Bill said he was exhausted and wanted to go back home. We headed in both happy. Bill was happy he caught his striper and I was happy I did not let my friend down. A few days later Bill’s wife called to tell me how proud he was of the fish and that they were having it that weekend for Sunday dinner. When I hung up the phone I just sat at my desk for while. I thought of all the hell we raised, all the battles we had won on the field, how we had always stuck together and how we have been friends for 25 years. I wondered what the future holds for me, for Bill and then it dawned up me as long as I can get on Surfrunner and get a pole in my hand and a fish in the line…then maybe, just maybe everything is going to be alright.