Everything I Found on the Beach Read Online Free PDF Page A

rope-line to the man.
    â€œHow’s the sea?” said the man. He knew he didn’t know his own boat. His ownership was of the idea of the boat.
    Hold looked up at him. “Getting up a little.” The man was on the quay wrapping the rope around the iron cleat.
    â€œTomorrow?” said the man.
    He stood up from the rope. There were a few people stopped on the quay looking down into the boat at the coiled lines and the bounty of fish and at the spider crabs and the one big lobster.
    The man was looking down into the boat at the boxes of fish. They were so fresh they hadn’t started to lose their color yet and in the light the fish were very fine things, and there was something somehow religious about them.
    â€œIt’s your boat,” Hold said up.
    â€œYou’re in it,” said the man.
    Hold looked out at the sea rising slightly in a swell. “I’m happy to take her out tomorrow.”
    They’d loaded the fish up onto the quay and the man had gone into the hotel there and the restaurant manager had come out with him and chosen the fish he wanted. It was a public act and it was a very good advertisement for the hotel to the few early tourists. In the summer, the tourists were bolder and would gather like gulls and they would sell direct to them, setting the scales up on the quay wall.
    The manager wanted the fish and the lobster and gave the man cash for them and the man wrote it down in a duplicate book and gave a copy back to the manager. Then he counted off the percentage of the money and added the fee to it and wrote it down and gave it to Hold.
    â€œI took some fillets,” Hold said. He was very clear like that.
    â€œFine,” said the man.
    â€œDrink, guys?” the hotel manager said.
    They both declined and the restaurant manager said to Hold, “Could you get some rabbits for me? Dozen?” and Hold said he could. And the manager said, “For Friday.”
    â€œOkay,” said Hold. “I’ll go out tonight. I’ll bring some in the morning or the morning after.” He knew it was a full moon and not a good night for it but figured that over two nights even with bad shooting he could get a dozen.
    Every now and then he rubbed the nub of his thumb where something he’d got under his skin was swelling into a small sore. “It’s a bit of fish bone,” he thought. Or perhaps something off the boat. He examined it casually and scratched at it with his other thumbnail but the skin didn’t lift.
    â€œDo you want the crab?” asked the man.
    The restaurant manager looked at them and looked back at the hotel doubtfully and said, “They’re fiddly as hell…” And Hold said, “They’re in early. Really early this year.”
    â€œI’ll take them,” said the manager. Their meat was very sweet and of great flavor, but it was work to get the meat out in terms of time. “I’ll cook them up,” the manager said.
    â€œYou can have them,” said the man, and looked at Hold as if to check it with him. Hold shrugged. He flicked with his nail at the little sore again, trying to see what it was that was under his skin. He was perturbed at the crab being in so early. Usually it was from May they came in any numbers.
    Hold put the tub of spider crabs on the quay wall and they loaded the rest of the fish into the 4 x 4 and poured over them the crushed ice that was softening in a plastic sack in the back of the vehicle. Then the man drove off with them. People were staring into the big tub of spider crabs. The crabs looked very alien there on the quay wall.
    Hold unwound the rope-line and cast it down into the boat and went down the ladder, kicking off the heavy boat from the wall, and the restaurant manager came out and took the crabs to cook.
    Big mullet were coming in on the tide and grazing the harbor wall and people were remarking on it.
    Hold headed the boat over to her mooring and tied