by Dennis Tessier

Created on: November 02, 2008

The storm

It was cold that morning, and the fog lay heavy on the water. Captain Dale had already gone down to the wharf to get the boat ready. I had just finished dressing for the day when I heard my name called for breakfast. I needed a hot breakfast for I knew it would be a long day of hard work. We had already dropped the traps three days earlier, and we needed to go out and look the traps. Looking the traps is a term for seeing if there are any lobster's in the trap. It was still early spring, which meant even now we could get a storm or two before it warmed up for the summer. After finishing my breakfast I grabbed my jacket and headed down to the wharf to join Captain Dale.

He's not a tall man, rather short and a bit round if you asked me, but he has a sureness about him that had been cut from the very sea in which he has spent his life mastering. Strong and sure of himself he is a man of few words, in fact a little too quite for me. Despite this fact, when he does tell you a story about a time long ago you can see a sparkle of joy in his eyes. Many times while listening I have searched his face for any sign of remorse for his loss of youth. Nevertheless he just smiles and gives me a wink. I figured that was his way of letting me know that he was ok with growing old. The mid nineteen hundreds had been his hay day, and although we are at the beginning of the twenty first century I can see that not much has changed along the coast or with him.

As I approached the wharf I found him standing there looking toward the mouth of the bay. With the heavy fog I all but wonder, what he saw in that huge display of emptiness the fog had painted upon the ocean. Dennis did you eat a good breakfast Captain Dale had asked me, yes sir I replied. Good we have a long day of work ahead of us. The fog is thick which is going to slow us down a bit, so get in the boat we need to get moving. He didn't say another word about the weather, but I could see it in his face that something had him worried. As we climbed aboard he handed me a life jacket and told me to put it on. Now this was a first, for I had never been asked to wear one before. It's a little hard to check the traps with it on, but I did as I was told.

As we headed out to sea I could hear a rumbling noise in the distance. I looked to Captain Dale for a little reassurance, but he just kept his eyes towards the bow on the boat. Captain Dale had a small boat no more than 22 feet long, so we fished the coastal water's of

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