Flo stood alone under the glare of his headlamp, the dark river sliding past the boat. He was laughing, but there was an edge to it. “Hey, where did my lamps go? Anyone know where my lamps are?
”
“You’ve got them,” someone called back. “Wait, wait. Yeah, there they are on the table. Okay, I’ll take them until the others get here.
”
He grabbed them and settled in. Behind him, the radio crackled with the game. Spain had just scored against the clock, 21 seconds left. It was almost over.
There was talk of playing Ludo, the kind of lazy talk that filled the gaps between bites and casts. Flo poured out the thermos. “There,” he said, “that wasn’t what you thought it was. ”
A laugh came back from the dark.
“We heard you. ”
“It was the thermos. I just emptied the thermos. ”
The breeze picked up, and the talk turned to the news.
A headline had just come through about a wildfire, a thousand kilometers of forest in flames, a major operation underway. Flo read it out loud, his voice flat. “Oof. That’s something.
”
“Yeah, that’s a real thing,” someone said. They turned back to the rods. Flo was reeling in, hand over hand. “I can’t tell if I’m pulling the lead over the bottom or just retrieving line.
It’s totally smooth. Must be a perfectly flat bottom here. ”
“Just bring it in,” Marty said. “Okay, you pull yours in too.
We’ll take yours out first. ”
They worked the lines, checking the ends. Flo found his hook stripped clean. “There’s no bait left.
The lure’s gone. Some fish took the whole thing. ”
“Yeah, that happened to me earlier too,” Georgie said. “Thanks for taking part in the sturgeon program,” Marty said dryly.
“We appreciate your donation. ”
Flo grumbled. “Glad I could help. ”
The batteries were low.
The battery pack showed 10 percent, then 8. Flo was already lamenting the solar panel he’d ordered six weeks ago, still not delivered. “The season’s starting. Everything’s sold out.
I need it for France by next Friday. ”
“You’ll have to borrow power from the generator,” Georgie said. “Yeah, I’ve got the generator. The cables go there, we’ll charge it up.
It’s fine. ”
They talked about the sturgeon they were after. Some had been planted, others were wild. The big ones, the giants, were still far out in the deep water.
Flo was frustrated. “Fred, sorry, I just saw you. The biggest ones are out deep, and I’m sitting here in the nursery with my rod. ”
“No,” someone said, “you’re in the living room.
”
“Oh, okay. Don’t scare me like that. ”
There was a rustle, and then a genuine jump. “Oh, you did scare me that time.
”
“Manuela says to say thanks,” Georgie said. “She said it was exciting. ”
“Yeah, it’s exciting,” Flo said, without much conviction. The talk drifted to regulations.
There was a new rule coming down on the EU level, something about sturgeon and fishing lines, something about bait and the Jäger. “They’re banning the use of the lures on this level. It’s total bullshit. ”
“It is what it is.
”
“At least the hunters can’t work at night anymore,” Marty said. “That’s something. ”
“Yeah, that’s the thing that makes sense. ”
The lights on the barge flickered, and someone moved to cut a piece of bait.
Flo watched them halve the strip. “Let’s split this one. I need half. ”
“Sure.
”
“So, how long is the battery on your anchor light? ” Georgie asked. “Probably a day and a half, maybe two. Depends on how hard the cooler pulls tomorrow when it gets warm.
”
“Eighty percent? ”
“About that. I’m still waiting on that stupid solar panel. ”
“You’ll get there.
”
There was talk about the stream, whether to keep it running all night. Flo hesitated. “Part of me wants to leave it on, especially for the ambience. But if I fall asleep deeper, I might not hear anything.
”
“We’re not friends anymore if you turn the stream off,” Marty said. “Okay, okay. We’ll take a short ten-minute break, then I’ll come back online. That way, if we doze off, we’ll still hear when it comes back.
”
Marty didn’t answer. Flo looked over. “You said something? ”
“No.
”
“Okay. ”
The water was alive with insects now. They swarmed around the headlamps, attracted by the light. Flo watched them.
“The creatures are going wild around my head. Direct sun and light, and they just come. ”
“Yeah, it’s about to be that time. ”
They cast out again, the lines pulled tight into the dark.
The sturgeon were out there, hidden somewhere beneath the smooth surface. Flo sat still, the rod in his hand, the headlamp casting a small, lonely pool of light on the water. It was quiet for a moment. Just the hum of the lights and the distant sound of the river.
Flo wasn’t going to leave. Not yet. The fish were out there, and he had nothing else to do tonight.
