CHAPTER 5
The next day, Daniel and his parents headed over to his grandparents’ house. He was excited to get his grandpa’s fishing gear, but he also felt sad that his grandpa wouldn’t be with him to use it.
When they arrived, Daniel’s grandma gave him a hug.
“Hi, Grandma,” he said. “Did you mean it when you said I could look through Grandpa’s fishing stuff?”
His grandma smiled. “Of course, honey. Most of your grandpa’s fishing gear was in the garage,” she said. “But he had a lot of stuff that he kept down in the basement, too. Some of the older stuff is down there. I don’t know if you want it or not, but it wouldn’t hurt to look.”
“I’d like to look,” Daniel said. “Can you show me?”
Grandma led him down to a dark part of the basement. Daniel had spent a lot of time playing down there, but he’d never gone into the dirty, dusty corner where Grandpa’s workbench was.
Grandma turned on a light over the workbench. “Well, here it is, Daniel,” she said. “I don’t know what’s in those boxes, but you’re welcome to look. Take anything you want.”
Daniel stood and looked around. On the wall in front of him was a rack full of fishing poles. The boxes under the workbench were full of lures and other fishing gear.
He looked for a while, but Daniel didn’t want anything he found down in the basement. He wanted to take the gear that Grandpa Carl had used when they fished together. Most of that stuff was in the garage. Daniel decided to go back upstairs.
He reached for the light. But then he noticed a picture on the wall behind the workbench. It was dusty, but Daniel recognized the man in the picture right away. It was Grandpa Carl.
In the picture, Grandpa was standing proudly on a dock. He was holding up a prized catch.
Wow, that’s a big fish, Daniel thought. He paused for a second and studied the photo. He wiped the dust off with his shirt. Then he looked at the picture again. The more closely he looked, the more he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
His grandpa was proudly holding a giant fish. And that giant fish had a yellow stripe that went halfway down its side.
It was Big Larry.