Fishing For a Romi

 It was a cold icy day in my cabin. My brother and I were playing a board game in the cabin, with the electric heater pointing directly at us. My parents and our aunt were taking a nap before we went to a fishing place for dinner. It's pretty simple, you catch the fish and the place cooks it for you. “Uno!” I exclaimed. 

“Why do you always win?” my brother asks as he gathers all of the cards together to start a new round. “Because I am better” I brag. “Do you want to go out on the patio?” I ask him.

“Sure!” he says relieved that his losing streak in uno is finished. I pack all of the cards away with my cold numb hands, and I get up. My dog along with my parents is taking a nap, so I gently pat him on his head and open the door. The freezing cold wind hit my face as I took a step outside. It's beginning to become spring but the cold mountains made it feel like it's still winter. I see a bit of snow piled up outside from the winter. Most of it melted away. I breath in the cold air, I see trees leafless and a few in the distance with leaves. The cloudy skies made the lake in the middle looks gray today, but I sat in a fold out chair and relax. I see senri playing a game and i say “You shouldn't be using the pocket wifi”

“I’m not,” he replies. I close my eyes and think about the fish and the food we are eating tonight.

I hear the creaking of the rickety stairs as my parents emerge from the upstairs. About time. I walk back inside with my brother and feel the warm heater as I take a step in the cabin. The smell of the wooden cabin always comforts me. 

“Do you want to play a game with us?” my brother asks them.

“No we are going fishing, remember?” my mom informs him. All of the adults are awake and all go on their phones. If we can't use the pocket wifi why can they? I ask when we are going to leave and my dad tells me at 4:30. I glance over at the clock and it is 4:20 on the dot. They aren't doing anything so I go sit on a lounge chair with my dog and softly stroke his fur. I begin to get impatient and I walk over to put my other sweater on for the outside. I face the cold outside as I put my shoes on, and wait, and wait for them to come. It didn't take long before everyone else got their jackets and shoes on, so I petted the dog goodbye and told him that we will be back soon.  

The car is cold as we enter but the heaters warm it up. I sit down and strap myself in, I hear the click of the seatbelt and I hear the car start up. The heaters blow out warm air that feels great, and as we drive across the gravel I hear the crunch, crunch until we hit smooth paved roads. We take windy roads down the mountain and go slow until we hit the more crowded roads with more cars. I look for interesting cars in the meantime to cure my boredom.

I slam the car door shut as we all tople out of the car. The skies cleared up for a bit as though it could feel my excitement. I see the old building with multiple floors, and the fishing ponds around. I skip up a path towards the building and I overhear my mom saying that she used to go here with her old friend, and while the fish is cooking they went into an onsen. I look around at the ponds, the fish swarm the pond and there is a slight smell of fish around, the grass is still yellow, and my hands are in my pockets. I wonder how the fish feel when us humans go fishing. I walked back next to my mother and as we entered the place, it was a lot warmer and there was a place to take your shoes off and enter. The kind old lady there gives us a small bowl with some fish food in it. My thoughts swarm around the idea of us eating it because we caught the fish with it, my mom hands me the bowl and its a brown substance thats like play dough and you ball a bit of it up on the fishing hook. We walk on the crunchy yellow grass over to a pond in the corner. It was small and the fish looked about a foot long! I touch the squishy weird fish food, and ball it up on the hook. I am no expert but I just swing the bamboo fishing pole out and wait for something to happen. I admire the trees and the fish swarming to get my food, but they snatch it off and leave the hook bare! These will be hard to catch.

Its been a while and we have caught 5, we need one more for a plate of sashimi. I let my mom have a try on the fish, but i look around for the food and see the food is gone! I look around and see it in the tall grass near the fishing pond in the middle. I crawl down to go retrieve the food, and suddenly all i see is a dark green and blue. What? I sit up in panic and the icy air hits my body. I really did fall in? Huh. The wind makes me shiver. Shocked, I call for my mom and I don't remember the rest. I remember embarrassment and shame as I walk through the hall. There is a room that has a massaging chair, and a sink.

“I will be back with dry clothes” she says as she closes the door behind me. I peek my head into the empty onsen and I take my clothes off. The hot stray air hits my face as I walk into the place. There are showers along the walls and a small pool of hot water in the corner. I wash my body off and spend some time in the onsen. My mom is taking longer than expected, but I also think I'm being impatient. 

I hear the door open as my mom tells me that she has clothes for me. I put the warm clothes on, my white fluffy jacket on last. I walk down the warm hall, the carpet beneath me. I walk down the stairs, find our table and sit down. We wait a bit for the food to come out and when it finally does, I feel happy and maybe even though I fell in, maybe it wasn't so bad.