By: Mary Bone

     The summer between her junior and senior years, Alex worked as a server at Wharf Mountain. The tips were great. Alex nearly had enough money to buy a new car. The mountain was full of tourists and Alex sometimes entertained the crowd at the open mic, singing and reading her own poetry.

     Many of Alex’s friends from school worked at Wharf Mountain to make extra spending money. Wharf Mountain was a great place to work. Alex’s boyfriend, Martin, worked as a regular entertainer and a comedian. He was a favorite among the local people who came to eat and then listen to the lively music and other things going on.

     A contest for the “Catch of the Day Catfish Prize”, was coming up. Martin and his friend Drew, had been fishing every day hoping to win the big prize which was a new boat. The Wharf Mountain Restaurant bought fish from the local fishermen to serve at the restaurant. Martin and Drewe had a large net they checked every day to see if there were any fish. Since the deadline to turn in the largest fish was on Saturday, they invited Alex along to help check the net.

     When they checked the lines, a large fish was caught in the middle of the net. It looked like a fifty pounder. They wondered if they could keep the fish alive until the contest. Drew had a large tank filled with water and hoisted the fish into the tank.

     Alex, Martin and Drew were overjoyed about their fish. Excitement was in the air. Other nearby fishermen could hear them yelling,” Yippee!”. They came over to look at their fish.

     When the catfish was weighed, it tipped the scale at fifty-five pounds. It was the largest fish brought in. The fish was still alive and flopping about in the tank when the teenagers collected their prize.

     Everyone knew that they would be telling this fish story for years to come at Wharf Mountain.

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Mary Bone has been writing poetry and short stories since childhood. Some of her poetry can be found at Literary Yard, Poetry Catalog, Visual Verse, eMerge, Active Muse and other places. Two short stories were published at The Red Dirt Chronicles and “My Folks and WWII” series.