All Dads on Deck Page 3

  That was not the thing to tell Sonny.

  He burst into tears and wanted to go home. Nothing Larry said seemed to quiet him.

  “What a baby,” said Ashley. “Is he going to cry the whole trip and ruin it?”

  Mr. George helped Jody settle in a deck chair along the railing. While everyone went exploring the boat, Molly sat down beside Jody.

  Now that Mary Beth had noticed the donuts, she was worried that someone else might, too.

  All of a sudden she burst out and told Jody her worries. And how Mary Beth had found the donuts. When she was finished, Jody said, “I don’t want to hurt the fish, either. But I thought I was the only one. I think the donuts are a great idea! I can keep them under my chair here till the time is right.”

  “Really?” shrieked Molly. She reached into her bag and handed him the donuts.

  The Pee Wees came back and ran around the deck.

  “I’ll watch for the right chance,” he said. “When no one is looking.”

  Molly felt good, knowing someone else felt the same way she did. Not even her best friend, Mary Beth, seemed to understand.

  Just then Mr. Duff came looking for Molly. Hank was taking a group below the deck to the galley, or tiny kitchen.

  “Look, there’s even a little refrigerator!” said Tracy.

  “We have one of those on our boat, too,” said Ashley.

  That is where my fish should be, thought Molly. But there was no way to put it there without being seen.

  Hank showed them where the engine was, and then made sure everyone’s life jacket was tied.

  Then he untied the launch from the dock and started the boat. The engine roared, the water parted, and their boat sped off.

  “Yippee!” shouted the Pee Wees. Troop 23 was asea!

  CHAPTER

  6

  Donuts and Shrimp

  When they got to the place where the fish were hungry, Hank turned off the engine and dropped the anchor. Mr. and Mrs. Peters went around and helped bait hooks. Some Pee Wees and their dads used worms, some minnows, and some used the bait they had made. Lisa’s dad had bait that looked like a bug. “My dad made it,” she said proudly.

  Larry Stone put bobbers and sinkers on some of the lines. The dads put them on others. Rachel and Kevin put their own bait on.

  “Yuck!” said Ashley. “I’m not touching any dirty old worm.”

  “I feel the same way,” said Mr. Baker. “You and I can stick to lures.”

  Molly wondered how she was going to get the hook off her line. Her dad had just put it on. Then Mr. Duff walked over to talk to Mr. White. Molly quickly pulled her line up and untied the hook. She took it off and she left the bobber and the sinker on. Then she threw the baitless line back in the water.

  “Where are the fish?” demanded Sonny.

  “Fish don’t bite that fast, young man,” said Hank. “You have to have patience to be a fisherman.”

  The Pee Wees sat with their lines in the water. They watched their bobbers.

  It was quiet, and the water lapped the sides of the boat gently. The air smelled fresh (except near Molly’s tote bag). Molly watched Jody for a sign that it was safe to get the donuts. And she wondered how she could get her shrimp fish tied on to her hook when she pulled it up.

  It didn’t take long till her chance came. She heard Jody whistle. She went over to his chair, and he said, “Nobody’s in the front of the boat. It’s safe to feed the fish up there.”

  Molly looked. He was right. And her dad was taking some seaweed off Kenny’s line. Molly put her pole down and took the donuts Jody handed her. She walked around past the life rafts. No one could see her. Jody winked and nodded.

  She took out the donuts and broke them up into small pieces and threw them over the railing. Several fish appeared and grabbed them! It was working!

  She saw Jody toss some pieces from his chair when no one was looking, too.

  Just as she was about to throw the last donut piece overboard, Sonny yelled:

  “What are you doing? What are you throwing overboard?”

  Sonny had popped up from nowhere. He must have come from the other direction! Even Jody had not seen him.

  Sonny saw the donut in her hand.

  “I’m just giving the fish a little treat,” said Molly, feeling like a criminal.

  Sonny looked over the railing. Lots of fish were eating now.

  Sonny ran back to the group, shouting, “Molly’s feeding the fish! They are all eating donuts!”

  Rat’s knees! Sonny was a tattletale. Why couldn’t he keep anything to himself?

  Now Roger was taking up the refrain. “Now the fish won’t want our bait, dummy!” He leaned over the railing and looked at the fish gobbling up the donuts.

  “It’s all right,” whispered Jody to Molly. “Those fish are full now. They aren’t going to want any worms for a long time!”

  Hank tried to make Molly feel better. “These fish have big appetites,” he said. But that is exactly what Molly did not want to hear.

  Molly’s dad looked puzzled.

  For a long time no fish bit their bait. They sat for half an hour without a nibble.

  “See?” said Jody. “It worked! Those fish are full!”

  “It’s Molly’s fault,” growled Roger.

  Hank took up the anchor and moved the boat to another spot.

  He’s going where there are new fish, thought Molly. Hungry fish.

  She was right. Before long Tim’s bobber went underwater.

  “Pull it in!” shouted his uncle Roy.

  Mr. Peters grabbed his pole to help.

  Tracy’s dad got the net ready.

  “Yea for Tim!” called Mrs. Peters. “He got the first fish!”

  The fish was a sunfish. Molly did not watch as Tim’s uncle Roy took the hook out of its mouth and put it in a pail of water.

  One by one the Pee Wees caught fish. Hank got a walleye. And Sonny got a bullhead with black whiskers sticking out all over its round head.

  “Hey, Stone’s fish looks just like him!” shouted Roger.

  Sonny gave him a kick.

  “Psst,” said Jody to Molly. “I took the hook off my line. No fish is going to get his mouth hurt on my line!”

  “But you won’t get a badge!” said Molly.

  “I’ll draw a picture of a fish,” Jody said, and shrugged.

  Jody was brave! He wasn’t afraid to stand up for his rights.

  Molly felt very close to him. Maybe she would marry Jody instead of Kevin! She wasn’t sure she wanted to marry a mayor anyway.

  Pretty soon Mary Beth got a little crappie that had to be thrown back because it was too small to eat.

  “But it still counts,” said Mrs. Peters.

  Mary Beth took it off the line herself, with her dad’s glove on.

  Molly decided she would have to get that shrimp on her line soon or risk not getting a badge. No fish would get caught on a hookless line. And Molly did not want it to.

  “Did you check your bait, Molly?” asked her dad. “Maybe the fish nibbled it off.”

  “I will,” said Molly quickly. “I can do it myself.”

  She walked over to a life raft and pulled her line up. She bent down and quickly tied her line around the shrimp’s waist. She popped it back in the water. It got tangled up on the end of the boat, but then it sunk.

  All of a sudden her bobber went underwater! She had not thought of this! What if some big fish was eating her shrimp? She would be without a badge after all her work! The line went down again and bent her pole in half. Either a big fish was there, or her shrimp had gained a lot of weight.

  “I think you’ve got your fish!” said Mr. Duff in great excitement. “I was afraid you were never going to catch one!”

  At least her fish wasn’t a lie. She DID have a fish on her line!

  But what was pulling it down in the water so hard?

  All the men sprang over to help Molly land her fish. The net was ready. Up, up, up, up. And
finally there was her fish, sparkling in the sunlight.

  “It’s an old pail!” shouted Kenny. “A pail full of water! And a bunch of seaweed!”

  Sure enough, Molly’s line had got twisted around some seaweed and onto the handle of an old pail.

  As her dad grabbed the pail, she asked, “Don’t I have a fish on my line?”

  “Let’s see,” said her dad. He peered in the pail. There was Molly’s shrimp, still tied to her line. Limp and wet, but it was there!

  “I caught a fish!” shrieked Molly.

  Everyone gathered around to see it. They stared.

  “What the heck is it?” asked Lisa.

  “That’s no fish,” said Sonny. “It looks like a worm!”

  “It’s no worm!” said Molly, stamping her foot.

  Ashley peered at the line. “It’s a shrimp!” she shouted. “How could you catch a shrimp in a lake? Shrimp live in the ocean!”

  Molly hadn’t known that. A fish was a fish, she had thought. Now she realized her mistake. Shrimp must come from salt water!

  “Why did you buy a shrimp?” whispered Mary Beth.

  Molly felt embarrassed. “The others had their heads off,” she told her. “It’s a fish, and I caught it,” she said. “What’s the difference what kind it is?”

  Mrs. Peters threw back her head and roared. “I think I know what happened,” she said.

  “So do I,” said Molly’s dad, putting an arm around his daughter.

  “I didn’t want to hurt a fish with a hook,” Molly blurted out.

  Mrs. Peters gave Molly a hug. “There is nothing wrong with thinking about the fish’s feelings,” she said. “There are lots and lots of people who do not fish or hunt because they do not believe in hurting animals.”

  Molly’s dad took her aside and said, “You didn’t have to go out and buy a fish, honey. You could have told me how you felt. Remember, you can’t let anyone force you to do something you don’t believe in.”

  Molly was very glad to hear her father say that. She felt a flood of relief now that her dad knew! It was no fun to keep secrets from your family, she thought.

  “I didn’t want to ruin the party,” said Molly.

  Molly’s dad was just about to empty the old pail into the lake when he discovered something.

  “Look!” he said. “There is a fish in this pail! And it is not a shrimp!”

  The Pee Wees looked. There in the water in the pail was a small sunfish!

  “I did catch a fish!” shouted Molly. “Without a hook!”

  Everyone laughed.

  “Molly caught two fish, instead of one,” said Mrs. Peters.

  “This one counts as Jody’s fish,” said Molly, smiling at Jody. “He didn’t want to hurt a fish, either,” she explained to her dad.

  The fish flopped in the pail.

  “Do we have to keep it?” asked Molly.

  “Let’s put it back in the water,” said Molly’s dad.

  Molly felt relieved.

  “I caught a fish,” said Jody, “and we didn’t even have to hurt it!”

  Together Molly and her dad emptied the pail over the railing.

  “Now I know just how I’ll draw my fish,” said Jody.

  CHAPTER

  7

  Emergency!

  After everyone had caught a fish, and some of the dads three or four, Ashley came up to Molly. She put her arm through Molly’s and said, “I think it is great you don’t want to hurt fish. You’re a nice person.”

  Molly was surprised. Just when she decided Ashley was a show-off, she said something kind. It helped to have others feel the same as she did! And Ashley liked her!

  “My grandma is a vegetarian,” Ashley went on. “She doesn’t eat any meat or any fish.”

  “My aunt doesn’t eat anything ‘with a face,’ ” said Jody. “She eats Chinese stir-fry with cabbage and tofu and stuff.”

  “Hey, cabbage has a face!” said Roger.

  “Does not, dum dum,” said Rachel.

  “Does, too,” said Roger.

  Soon the Pee Wees were all taking sides about whether vegetables and fruit had faces.

  “A pumpkin does!” said Tim. “At Halloween!”

  Mrs. Peters had to hold up her hand for silence, just as she did at the meetings.

  “We’ll be having a good Father’s Day luncheon here on the deck in a little while,” she said. “First we will put all of our fishing equipment away like good Scouts.”

  The dads and the Scouts rinsed off the hooks. They wound up the fishing lines. They put the sinkers and bobbers in the right place in the tackle boxes. They put the covers on the cans of worms. And Hank swept some of the fishy water from the deck into the lake.

  The Pee Wees stretched out in folding chairs to rest. The water was blue. The sky was blue. And all the trees along the shore were bursting into new green leaves. The water lapped, lapped, lapped at the side of the boat. It was so peaceful, Molly thought she could almost fall asleep. But in the background she could hear Roger’s father.

  “I built a boat myself,” he said. “From scratch.”

  He sounds just like Roger, thought Molly.

  “You’re welcome to come over and see it, Meyers,” Mr. White said.

  Molly opened one eye. She saw Mr. White give Rachel’s dad a punch on the arm. He acts just like Roger, too! thought Molly.

  “I’ll do that,” said Rachel’s dad.

  “Maybe we can take the kids for a spin some weekend, and try it out.”

  “That’s a good idea. Maybe over the Fourth of July.”

  Molly couldn’t believe what she was hearing! If Mr. White and Dr. Meyers got to be friends, Rachel and Roger would be going boating together! Molly looked around. Rachel and Roger were not there. They had not heard this new plan. And Molly didn’t want to be around when they did!

  “Mrs. Peters, can I take off my safety vest?” asked Ashley. “It’s all lumpy and uncomfortable. And orange isn’t my color.”

  “I’m sorry, Ashley, but we have to wear our life jackets while we are on the water.”

  “I can swim,” said Ashley, pouting.

  “A person may be too nervous to swim,” said Mrs. Peters. “We have the jackets in case of emergency.”

  Sonny was farther down on the deck. He heard the word “emergency,” but he didn’t hear the words “in case of.”

  “Emergency!” he screamed, and ran like a shot to the life rafts. Before anyone could get there, he had pressed the red buttons. From one to the other he ran, inflating the rafts.

  “Come on!” he yelled. “Help me get these overboard.”

  But Sonny could not lift the inflated rafts! They were huge and they were clumsy. When they got to their full size, they took up almost the whole deck! The Pee Wees could hardly move!

  “What’s the emergency?” called Hank, running up from the galley.

  “Is there a man overboard?” yelled Roger, leaning over the railing.

  Mr. Peters was walking in and out between the rafts, counting noses.

  “I think we are all here,” he said.

  “I’ll bet there’s a leak in the boat!” said Sonny. “Look at the water up front!”

  “That’s no leak, dummy,” said Roger. “It’s from splashing water.”

  “Well, there’s some emergency, I heard somebody say so,” said Sonny.

  The dads covered the whole boat. They did not find an emergency.

  The Pee Wees were squished against the railing because of the inflated rafts.

  “Who did this?” asked Hank. “Who inflated these rafts?”

  The Pee Wees pointed to Sonny. He was hiding under one of the rafts.

  “I saw him,” said Ashley. “I was talking to Mrs. Peters about taking off my life jacket, and she said we need it in case of emergency, and then Sonny ran and pressed all those red buttons.”

  Larry Stone scratched his head. “Somehow I knew Sonny was at the bottom of all of this,” he said.

  Sonny peeked out
from under a raft. Larry brought him out. Sonny was crying.

  Mrs. Peters put her arm around Sonny and said, “No harm done. The one thing we can all be grateful for is there is no real emergency.”

  Mrs. Peters was too nice, thought Molly. She should have pounded Sonny.

  “Well, now that the rafts are inflated, we may as well turn them over and use them for picnic tables!” said Hank, laughing.

  “Baby,” said Rachel to Sonny as she and Tracy and Lisa set a paper plate for each person on the rafts.

  “We needed tables anyway.” Sonny pouted.

  “Yeah, Stone, sure! Like you knew what you were doing,” said Roger.

  Hank and Mrs. Peters and Mr. Peters carried in the food. On a little folding table was a big cake. It had blue frosting for the lake. On the blue lake was a small boat. It had a flag on it that said PEE WEES. Around the edges were frosting fish in all shapes. And across the sky, frosting letters said HAPPY FATHER’S DAY, DADS!

  “It’s too pretty to eat,” said Tracy.

  “Our cook makes cakes like this,” said Ashley. “Every year on my birthday. Only it says HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ASHLEY instead of HAPPY FATHER’S DAY, and sometimes it has my horse on it.”

  The Pee Wees scrambled around the rafts. They were all hungry from the fresh air and exercise. They ate all the food there, and more food when it was brought in.

  They ate sandwiches and potato salad and watermelon and pickles. They drank milk and soda pop and fruit juice.

  “Save room for the cake!” warned Mrs. Peters.

  The Pee Wees did. Then they sang “Happy Father’s Day” to the dads, to the tune of “Happy Birthday.” They sang the Pee Wee Song and said the Pee Wee Pledge.

  After they helped carry away the trash, the dads told stories about other fishing trips. And some of them told stories about sailing.

  “I remember a canoe trip when the rapids were so strong we almost went over the falls,” said Mr. George. “The water swept our lunch and even our shoes out of the boat and down the river.”

  “Where do you canoe?” asked Tim’s uncle Roy.

  “We usually go to the Bush River,” answered Mr. George.