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Three Boys and a Bass

Tommy Goodloe and Eddie Spriggs sat on the bikes in front of the Cool Springs Baptist church waiting on Arlo Murphy to get there. Summer was nearly over. The seventh grade awaited the boys when school started back. The great adventure that they had expected to have this summer had never materialized. It had been a plain old hot, muggy, and boring summer. The only break in the doldrums was when they would go fishing in Arlo's grandfather's pond. At that pond, they were Bill Dance, Roland Martin, and Orlando Wilson in search of wall hanging, line breaking monster bass. There was one bass in particular in that pond that defied all efforts in angling expertise. Arlo's older brother Tim had named him, "Old Jaws", after the shark in that movie. Tim said he had a mouth as big as a five gallon bucket and weighed over 30 pounds. Tim was always prone to exaggerate, but anyone who ever hooked up with Old Jaws had nothing but busted tackle and a fish story to tell to show for it.

Arlo finally arrived. There was urgent excitement in his voice as he began to speak.
"Grandpa is going to drain his pond!" Arlo exclaimed while trying to catch his breath.
"What?" Tommy and Eddie both said in unison.
"Grandpa's going to drain his pond so he can rebuild the dam. Said it was damaged when that tropical storm came through a couple years ago. The Farmer's Almanac is calling for a wet fall and winter. Grandpa's afraid that it might break.
"What about all the fish?" asked Tommy.
"What about Old Jaws?" asked Eddie.
"They are going to lower the water level and seine all the fish out," Arlo answered, " the Department of Fish and Game are going to help Grandpa restock the fish."
What about Old Jaws?' asked Eddie again.
The other two heard Eddie that time. All grew quiet. Eddie, Tommy, and Arlo each had dreams of being the one who finally put that bass on the wall.
"When are they going to do it?" asked Eddie.
"Saturday morning," replied Arlo.
"Well, I for one, ain't gonna stand around and let someone catch Old Jaws in a seine net," exclaimed Eddie.
"Me neither," added Tommy.
"Ditto," said Arlo.
"Okay , tell you what we do. We camp out at the pond Friday night and we catch Old Jaws ourselves," explained Eddie, "You guys go do whatever it takes to get to go."
The three boys agreed to meet at Tommy's house to make their plans for the great adventure that had eluded them all summer, and then headed home to take care of all those chores that they had put off since school

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