Maniac Monkeys on Magnolia Street & When Mules Flew on Magnolia Street by Angela Johnson

Author:Angela Johnson [Johnson, Angela]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-48794-0
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2000-09-25T04:00:00+00:00

We make up songs whenever we go fishing, and never afterward remember anything we've sung. We've made up thousands of fishing songs. I think the fish like them, too, even though everyone says the noise scares them.

Me, Lump, and Billy grabbed all our fishing gear and ran down the ravine to the river.

It was a beautiful morning.

We walked for a few minutes along the river. Water bugs danced on the surface, and we listened to katydids calling. We have a special place that's just big enough for us. The bank is sandy, and there's enough room to put all our gear down and still stretch out while we're fishing.

“Great!” Lump said as he started to bait the fishhooks with cheese.

“Nothing like fishing,” Billy said as he pulled out a few comic books and the mosquito spray.

I took the Big Swooshies and put them into the river so the water would keep them cool. It's early in the summer, and the water was still cold. The sun hadn't warmed up our part of the river yet.

I also tied up some loose ends of the net. It got a little torn last time, when Billy got bored with fishing and went looking for elk upriver. Even though Lump said he didn't think elk lived this far south, it didn't stop Billy, who ripped the net catching what he first thought was a bear but which turned out to be an old barbecue.

When Billy gets something in his head, you better not get in his way. It's best to join in; mostly, we do.

Soon we were all waiting for the fish to come. This is always my favorite part of fishing—waiting and looking into the water. It's exciting thinking that a fish could bite at any moment.

Mostly, though, they just take the bait, not the hook. Then we feed them more.

“It's good to be out of school for the summer,” Lump said.

“Yeah,” I said. “I think the teachers needed a break. They were starting to daydream and not pay attention to their work.”

Billy said, “I caught Ms. Thorton playing with a yo-yo before class a couple of days before summer vacation.”

Lump said, “The whole class caught Mr. Kane blowing bubbles at his desk the day school let out.”

“I feel sorry for the teachers. It's hard for them all year long. I hope a few of them are out fishing someplace.”

“Yeah,” said Lump.

“Yeah,” said Billy.

I threw a couple of chunks of cheese into the water for the fish who might not make it to the fishing poles. Sid might be right about them making sandwiches, but I wouldn't tell him that.

It got very quiet on the river. We got quiet, too. Nothing like fishing, with the sun high in the sky.

Lump took out the sandwiches. We all love baloney. It's another one of the good parts of fishing. I took the Big Swooshies out of the river, and we drank them like we'd been in the desert all day. You'd just dry up and get blown away like a leaf if it wasn't for Big Swooshies.

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