It's a Croaker

It's a cold, gray miserable day as far as weather goes.  With the rain falling just enough to be a nuisance, the wind whips my hair and causing it to sting my face. Smoke bellows from the nearby chemical plants causing the sky to appear even more gray than it actually is. My nostrils fill with a mixture of chemical smoke and salt water as I take in a huge breath. I nearly slide down the muddy bank into the canal as I feel a jerk on my fishing pole. I excitedly begin to reel in my catch.

With careful instructions from Uncle Bill, I continue to reel in the line. After all he is the expert at this. For what feels like hours but really is only minutes I struggle to follow his directions perfectly. Not only am I filled with the excitement of catching this fish but also I secretly love the attention from my Uncle Bill.

Standing there in what is now pouring down rain, reeling in this fish with no one else around I am completely and totally the center of Uncle Bill's attention. What else could I ask for?

With the perfect amount of coaching and direction I finally pull the fish out of the water and proudly turn to peer into Uncle Bill's face. With a hearty laugh he grabs the fish and begins to take the hook out of it's mouth. It's scales catch the light and momentarily I think it certainly must be the best fish in the entire world because I think it's a rainbow fish!

And just then a very weird noise comes from it's belly. Wondering what the heck is going on I ask Uncle Bill,"What's that noise?"

Through his laughing he tells me to just listen.  I lean closer to the fish, wondering if it's actually a fish now. I mean how could that noise come from a fish? Still confused and not quite sure of what was going on I back up a bit and look up at Uncle Bill again. Once again, through his smirking Uncle Bill instructs me to listen.

Not really sure of what to do I just stand there and suddenly the horrendous thing croaked again! As Uncle Bill erupts into a full belly laugh I am feeling very confused and quite a bit insecure of myself. Tears are pulling at the corners of my eyes as I almost begin to cry. It's only then that Uncle Bill says, "Croaker! It's a Croaker!"  Suddenly, everything makes sense! As if I knew what he was talking about I thought,  of course, it's going to croak! It's a Croaker fish!

Now, I join in with the laughter and watch the fish flop on the muddy bank where Uncle Bill tossed it. We laughed for a few minutes more and I danced around to the noise of the croaking fish.  When a few more moments passed Uncle Bill bends over, picks up the Croaker and casually tosses it back into the cloudy water of the canal.

We both looked at each other and said,"Croaker!" and fell into a laughing fit.