Ricochet River by Robin Cody
Author:Robin Cody
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Young Adult Fiction
Publisher: Ooligan Press
Published: 2017-04-17T00:00:00+00:00
Fifteen
âYou shoulda left âem be,â Link said.
Which was right. Jesse and I had panicked at the millpond spillway. Those fish would die anyway, and some of them might spawn in lower Tom Creek before they did.
The part that got me, when I had time to think it over, was that these fish went against everything you learn. Darwinâs theory and all that. These Tom Creek salmon that made it out to sea and backâthe fittest of their breed, youâd thinkâwere the ones that couldnât get past the millpond to spawn.
âWell thatâs exactly it,â Link said. âThem lazy numbers upstream,â he said, âare gettinâ smaller ever since the millpond went in. Used to be they was a scrappy fish, bigger. Now they donât have to get big. Ainât nothinâ gonna bother âem if they donât leave.â
Jesse and I were helping Link clear the blackberry thicket from the south wall of the bunkhouse.
âYouâre the smart one,â Link said to me. âFigure it out. Them fish at the millpond and up is the ones that survive. They breed more little runts and get smaller and uselesser every year.â He bent down to gather vines and carry them to the burn pile. But he didnât walk away. âI donât know this Darwin feller,â he said, scratching his ear. âAsk me, heâs got âer bass-ackwards,â he said. âPlumb backwards. Them that tries, dies.â
âUN-natural selection,â I said, standing up.
âSurvival of the timid,â Link said.
Jesse got a car. His license suspension was up, and Reno gave him the money. He skipped school one day and drove up after football practice in a red and white â57 Ford Fairlaneâa V-8 with automatic, overdrive, and dual pipes. It had scratches on the back right fender, but otherwise it was in excellent shape. The thing is, though, if you skip practice you have to come back with a limp or a dental excuse or at least a sad look on your face. Jesse showed up grinning, revving his engine. He never thought of those little things. Coach Garth decided to excuse himâWhat could he do? We needed Jesseâbut Coach was whacked off.
I wasnât too thrilled with Jesse myself.
At the barbershop, too, I heard some grumbling. âSee that goofy Injun got hisself a Ford Fairlane. Thatâs where your taxes are going, Jake.â
âNever worked a day in his life.â
The difference between Jesse and the greasersâwho had earned it, setting choker in the woods or rassling hay balesâwas that Jesse picked up two traffic tickets in that first week with his car. One was for speeding past the school, which is officially a twenty-five-mph zone, though nobody observes it. Even log trucks rumble through at forty or so, and you canât stop a log truck on a dime. But they got Jesse at forty-five. Not a warning, either, like Miles usually gives out. A ticket.
I say âtheyâ got him. This wasnât just a matter of Miles, the cop, having an eye out for him. Miles discusses all matters of law and order withâand takes his direction fromâthe barbershop morning coffee crowd.
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