Fish Boy.

Saturday, February 24, 2001

Fish Boy

Ernest Christopher Smith (who likes to be known as Ernie) is a studious boy, who lives in the town of Lower Ashford at 43 Evergreen Street, in a fine house that is almost the size of a mansion. Ernie is 13 years old, he is an only child and he goes to Lower Ashford Middle school for boys. Anyone who is a friend of Ernie's would know that he has a very immense passion for fishing, in fact you would be extremely lucky to find him without a fishing rod or a book about fishing. If you step into his room by accident you could probably mistake it for a library as it has so many books stacked on its’ shelves.

Whilst Ernie walks to school in the mornings by himself, he always reads a book about fishing. All the boys who see him with this book start shouting abusive names to Ernie like ‘‘fishy’’ and ‘‘trout face’’ and Ernie puts on a brave face, but inside his stomach is churning and he feels like he is going to cry.

When Ernie gets to school he walks across the crumbling bridge over the river and he starts naming to himself the different species of beautiful fish that are sliding and gliding down the water towards the sea. When the bell goes Ernie walks up to his classroom by himself hoping that one day he would meet someone else who he could talk to and indulge his feelings about fish.

Every day Ernie goes home, stuffs his face into his covers and prays that he could have a friend, then he jumps down the stairs and goes out to the river ...

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When Ernie gets to school he walks across the crumbling bridge over the river and he starts naming to himself the different species of beautiful fish that are sliding and gliding down the water towards the sea. When the bell goes Ernie walks up to his classroom by himself hoping that one day he would meet someone else who he could talk to and indulge his feelings about fish.

Every day Ernie goes home, stuffs his face into his covers and prays that he could have a friend, then he jumps down the stairs and goes out to the river until it’s dark and on the way home he usually gets himself some fish and chips for tea.

One day Ernie got up, washed and ready for school as normal, but when he tried to walk out the door he walked into something. At first he thought it was a dog but then he realized, someone was waiting for him outside the door. Ernie was delighted about this and at once, he asked this boy why he was there. The boy replied, “I am here to see you, I saw you with some books about fishing the other day and I wondered whether you wanted a challenge to see who could catch the biggest fish”.

Ernie was very pleased that someone else had an interest in fishing and he said with joy in his heart, “Of course I want a challenge, how about the winner gets £5 and by the way, what is your name?”

The boy answered, “Okay then, we will meet up on Saturday at your house at 9 0 clock and we will walk up to the river, oh and my name is Jake Richards, but you can call me J”.

Ernie replied, “Right J, see you on Saturday”. After all this, Ernie was in a brilliant mood, so he ran to school and he even forgot to read the next chapter in his book.

On Saturday, Ernie was up and out of bed at 7 o clock and he got all his fishing equipment ready including his £300 fishing rod. He was waiting outside the door fifteen minutes early, he was so happy and keen. At nine o clock on the dot Jake came round the corner on his bike and said Hi to Ernie and then Ernie jumped on the back of Jake’s bike and they took the bumpy bike track up to the river. For Ernie this felt like a dream, on the back of someone else’s bike and he was in a sparkling mood. When they got to the bank of the river Ernie set up his fishing rod and then Jake got out just a piece of wood with a ring of metal on the end to catch the fish with.

Ernie laughed at his rod but Jake said, “I don’t care how bad it is, I bet I will beat you anyway”. They were fishing for 4 hours and Jake had not caught anything but Ernie had caught a 10cm long fish, so he was in the lead at the moment. Jake asked if they could fish for one more hour and Ernie accepted the offer, but he had made the wrong decision because an absolutely enormous fish swam down the river and got wedged inside the metal of Jake's makeshift fishing rod.

Ernie was absolutely astounded by this and his face went as red as a strawberry, but he knew he had lost so he handed over his £5.

Ernie realized that just because he had all the top quality equipment and books, it didn’t mean that he would win. Friends were more precious than belongings.

After all this Ernie became firm friends with Jake and they went fishing very frequently together.

Tomas Garvey 8a