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So it was oars and sore backs A long, long day that started long before dawn It took an hour to get everything ready in the , the nets stowed after they’d been dried, the bait, hooks, lines, poles, the boats themselves, the day’s food supply, water, life jackets Then it took another hour of working the oars to get out far enough

Six boats, three ar nets They took turns because everyone hated the nets It wasthe nets back and forth slowly across the water Then hauling the nets up into the boat and picking fish and crabs and assorted debris out of the cords Hard work

Later, in the afternoon, a second batch of boats would go out to fish mostly for the blue water bats The water bats were a ht and flew out into the water during daylight The only use for the bats was to feed the zekes, the killer woretable fields The bats were the tribute kids paid the zekes The economy of Perdido Beach was doubly dependent on Quinn’s efforts

Today Quinn ith a net boat He’d let hi more and more out of shape in the firstthe fact that his legs and arer It helped, of course, that he had a better supply of protein thanGoof and Katrina, the three of theood day of it They hauled up a nuht for sure that was the net being snagged," Big Goof said He stared happily at the al fish in the bottoest fish we ever landed"

"I think it’s a tuna," Katrina opined

None of them really knehat some of the fish were They were either edible or not, either had a lot of bones or didn’t This fish, slowly gasping his last, looked very edible

"Maybe so," Quinn said , anyway"

"Took all three of us to haul hi happily at the

"Good uys You think it’s about ti everyone was starving They’d co out the silver coach’s whistle he used to co blasts

The other boats all dug in their oars and began heading toward Quinn’s boat Everyone found new energy when it was time to assemble for brunch

There were no waves, no stor in the middle of a placid mountain lake From this far out it was possible to believe that Perdido Beach looked normal Fro in the sun

They broke out the hibachi and the wood they’d kept dry, and Katrina, who had a One of the girls in another boat cut off the tail section of the tuna, scaled it, and sliced it into purple-pink steaks

In addition to the fish they had three cabbages and so was like a drug No one could really think of anything else until it had been eaten

Then they sat back, with the boats loosely roped together, and talked, taking a break before they spent another hour fishing and then faced the long row back into town