JOURNALS

October 7

p. 1-15

"My brother and I would have preferred to start learning how to fish by going out and catching a few, omitting entirely anything difficult or technical in the way of preparation that would take away from the fun."

"So my brother and I learned to cast Presbyterian-style, on a metronome."

In pages 1-15 we get an introduction of each character.  Norman is basically the narrator of the story.  He is a calm guy and doesn't always know how to handle situations.  His brother, Paul, is a bit different he is more outspoken and very colorful.  They tell about their childhood with their father teaching them how to fly fish and what a big part fly fishing plays in their lives as they get older.

October 8

p. 16-30

"Paul hit the head, separating the head from two teeth and knocking the body back on the table, which overturned, cutting the guy and his girl with broken dishes."

"She liked to hold Paul with one arm and me with the other and walk down Last Chance Gulch on Saturday night, forcing people into the gutter to get around us, and when they wouldn't give up the sidewalk she would shove Paul or me into them."

Paul and Norman are older now and they plan a trip up to their favorite fishing spot, Blackfoot.  They connect and Norman kind of realizes that Paul is a big drinker.  He has an incident with some men at a bar and ends up breaking things and injuring the men.  He is with his Native American Girlfriend.  They both end up in jail and Norman comes to bail them out and take them home. 

October 9

p. 31-45

"He was a big one.  It could have been my brother,  It could have been the fish circling back in the air and bragging about himself behind my back. "

"I glanced at the sky which I had forgotten about since the world had become no higher than a bush."

    When Norman caught that fish he felt a great sense of pride in himself.  It was also to show his brother that he could catch fish as well.  My sister and I have this problem quite a bit with her being more flexible than I am, but after working at my flexible goal for awhile it got a lot better.

October 10

p.46-60

My mother-in-law, stroking her knife on steel, said, "Poor boy, he's not well.  He was exposed to the sun too long."

"Just as if the scene had been taken for a Western film, it was high noon.  My brother-in-law nodded in the driver's seat, as he probably had all the way from Wolf Creek."

October 11

p.61-75

"But years ago I had known the river when it flowed through this now dry channel, so I could enliven its stony remains with the waters of memory"

"As the heat mirages on the river in front of me danced with and through each other, I could feel patterns from my own life joining with them."

October 12

p.76-90

"My father and mother were in retirement now, and neither one liked being out of things especially my mother, who was younger than my father and was used to running the church."

"To my father, the highest commandment was to do whatever his sons wanted him to do, especially if it meant to go fishing."

October 15

p.91-104

"It is those we live with and love and should know who elude us."

"I am haunted by waters."