Kid’s Pond

“DALE SLIPPED AT the kid’s pond a few days ago and I couldn’t get him up.” There was an air of apology in my dad’s voice, but sitting there at dinner I felt a stab of nausea below my sternum. On this expansive, isolated Idaho plain, no sign exists at “the kid’s pond” to keep a pair of intrepid nonagenarians away, so why wouldn’t they be there? (When my dad started his story, my first thought was, “Of course they were at the kid’s pond!’)

Years evaporate in a moment for fishing buddies. Many of our days on the water are lackluster, but