I never went fishing with my ‘Daddy”, at least not in the conventional sense. There were times as I was getting bigger that my parents would go on weekend vacations without us. During these times we would spend the weekend at various family homes, or friend’s of the family homes. I used to spend the weekends with one of my Dad’s co-workers. They were a married couple and they were very nice to me. They didn’t have any little ones of their own so we always did grown up type things together. One time his wife wasn’t there on the weekend so it was just him and I.
He asked me if I liked to fish, I said, “Ew, no.” He laughed and asked me, “What if there was a special kind of fishing were you wouldn’t have to touch an icky worm?” I told him as long as I didn’t have to touch a worm I would go. We left a note for his wife and we went ‘fishing’. Instead of going to a lake, we drove to an amusement park. I was seriously confused. As we went inside he said to me, “Okay Autumn, for the rest of the day you call me Daddy okay? It’s part of how we are going to fish.” I didn’t understand why he wanted me to do this but I said I would.
We went on so many rides, I gave him hugs and told my “Daddy” that I was having such a great time. We sat down to get some ice cream and ‘Daddy” quickly stood up. He looked at me and asked me if I was ready to fish. I told him no because I wanted to stay at the amusement park. He said that if I was a very good Daddy’s girl that after we were done catching something he would take me on more rides.
He pointed out a little girl a bit younger than myself. He told me to go over there and ask her if she was lost and if she was to bring her back over here. I told him I would and I did. She was lost, she was seperated from her family and was crying a little bit. I told her that my “Daddy” could help and took her over to him. He took us both back to the car so he could wash her face because he wanted her to look pretty when he took her back to her Mommy. He reached into the tackle box and pulled something out and told me to get into the car. I went into the car and heard him talking to her. Before long he was making the weirdest noises, I tried to turn around and see what he was doing but he yelled for me to keep looking forward, so I did.
He kept telling me to call him “Daddy” over and over again. Then. The movement of the car stopped and he slammed down the tailgate. He got into the car and we drove away. I almost cried because he promised that I could go on more rides. He told me that we needed to find another fishing spot because this one was all fished out but we would go to the mall instead and he would buy me something pretty, and all I would have to do is help him fish again.