“Jimmy, I hear you lock your sister up in a barn every day. Is that true?”

I turned around and squinted into the back-lit silhouette of Robin West.

“That’s a lie. I only lock her up on school days.” She had a nice shape, but the light from above was hurting my eyes so I looked back to my white cork bobber. Nothing.

“If I was your sister I wouldn’t let you do a thing like that to me.” I reeled the line in a bit, watching the cat-tail reeds dip seconds before the wind hit my face.

“If you were my sister you wouldn’t have any sense at all. You should mind your own business Robin and let me take care of mine.”

She huffed at me and didn’t say anything else. The line had drifted too far to the right, out into the sun, so I pulled it back and cast again. It landed with a plop a good ways into the bridge shadow. I always had luck under here on warmer days, when the fish would come in from the broiling water and congregate by the cool metal pylons. The weather today wasn’t too hot though – so I’d barely gotten a nibble.

“What’s her name again?” she asked me.

“Why you want to know so much about my sister?” I heard her foot kicking against the bridge railing.

“It’s just… look, you tell me her name and I’ll tell you why I want to know it.”

It wasn’t like it was any big secret so I spilled the beans. “Her name’s Maddie.”

TO BE CONTINUED…


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