Steve got Benny worried. Marsha might buy the karate excuse, but the fishing story was getting less believable. She never knew him to go fishing every morning for a week. But that’s exactly what Benny needed to do to follow Frank and the rest of the guys.
The following Sunday morning, April 26th, 1992, Benny arrived home with some expensive new fishing equipment. Hitched to the back of his Camry was a trailer carrying a used 14-foot aluminum Jon Boat and a 3hp Evinrude outboard motor. He found it in the Gary Post Tribune classifieds and paid the owner just under a thousand dollars cash for the entire package. Marsha was less than impressed, but Joshua liked it and thought his dad was pretty cool.
“Oh man! That’s real slick!” said Joshua as his eyes lit up when he saw the boat in the driveway. “Can we go fishing today?”
Marsha shook her head in disapproval. Rachel wanted to side with her mother, but was just as eager as her brother.
“You’re wasting all kinds of money on this little hobby of yours,” Marsha uttered. “You’ll use it three times a year, then it’ll sit in front of our house the rest of the time.”
“You’re wrong about that,” countered Benny. “Now that I have a boat I’ll be using it all the time. During the winter I’ll keep it in back behind the shed. No one will know the difference.”
“I’ll know,” said Marsha. “We’ll see how long this fling of yours lasts.”
Benny took Joshua and Rachel fishing on the boat that afternoon. They drove to the Marquette Park lagoon, Benny’s childhood fishing haunt. They parked at the Pavilion, unhitched the boat, and slid it down to the water below. By that time it was about 1:30 p.m.
“It’s not going to be this easy pushing it back up the hill,” Benny said to his kids, as they went back to get the motor and the rest of the gear.
Benny filled the motor with gas, attached it to the back of the boat, and made sure everyone put on a lifejacket. Joshua wanted to row instead of using the motor.
“Wait until we’re out a ways before you use the oars,” said Benny as he pushed the starter button.
Benny was thrilled the motor started so effortlessly as he grabbed the throttle and headed out on that beautiful spring afternoon. Joshua and Rachel were clearly enjoying the ride, the wind in their hair, as their father navigated the small vessel past the small Chinese bridge, making their way to the much larger lake area on the other side.
“You used to come here when you were my age?” Joshua asked as he tied a hook to his line. “Did Bubby Mildred let you take a boat out here?”
Benny looked at his son fixing the line, wishing he could go back and be his age again, knowing what he knows now.
“Yes,” Benny replied to Joshua. “But it wasn’t my boat. My friend Al Fredericks lived just a block from the shore over there and we used to take his parents’ boat.”
“Oh, I remember your friend Al. You haven’t seen him in a while, have you?”
“No, and I should,” answered Benny. “He used to be a good friend, and he only lives in Portage. I’m going to give him a call later this week.”
Benny opened up the throttle a little more, speeding up to avoid the wake from a larger boat that just passed by. They headed towards the main body of the lagoon and were quickly approaching the Lake Street Bridge. Benny and Al had somewhat of a traumatic experience there during a fishing outing in their last year of high school.
“Did I ever tell you what happened to Al and me the last time we were here?” Benny asked as he pointed to the big bridge.
“No,” replied Rachel. “What happened? Did Al fall in?” She chuckled.
“Worse than that,” said Benny as he gazed back as they passed the bridge, slowing down to a crawl. “Al and I rowed all the way down the lagoon to that narrow area about a half mile down. You’ll see what I’m talking about when we get to it. We didn’t have a motor and took turns rowing. On our way back home we noticed a bunch of guys, about our age, leaning over the railing and waiting for us to row by. Al noticed them first and knew what was going to happen. ‘They’re going to throw rocks at us,’ he said. And sure enough, as soon as we got close enough they pelted us with a barrage of rocks, like they were saving them up for when we passed by. I shielded our heads with the life preservers the best I could, but the rocks just kept coming. About a dozen of them hit us. Many more splashed next to our boat, like little torpedoes. One of the larger rocks hit Al on his arm and caused a bad bruise. Those kids were screaming and swearing and threatening us as they threw the rocks. I don’t think they recognized me or Al but I sure as hell recognized them. They were troublemakers and didn’t care who they hurt.”
Joshua opened up a package of Fig Newtons and gave one to his sister as he heard his father tell the story.
“Then what?” asked Josh.
“Well then Al got mad. After we got far enough away from them, we rowed to the shore and Al had me watch the boat while he went home to get something.”
“What?” Rachel asked as she ate one of the cookies.
“His shotgun!”
“His shotgun?” Joshua asked in disbelief. “He wanted to kill them?”
“I don’t know about kill them,” Benny said, “but at least he wanted to scare them. And I tried to talk him out of it, but Al wouldn’t listen. So I foolishly went back on the boat with him as we rowed about 75 feet away from the bridge and near the shore. The guys were still there, waiting for another boat to pass by, when Al took aim and started shooting.”
“Did he hit them?” asked Joshua.
“You know it! Al was always a good shot and he quickly got off five blasts. I saw two of the guys holding their faces and screaming bloody murder after the second blast. But Al was really mad and just kept shooting. We were too far away to see any blood, but those guys ran like hell and scattered in both directions. Then Al and I quickly rowed back to shore and dragged his boat through the woods before putting it back into his garage. No one saw us.”
“Did you ever find out what happened to the guys he hit?” asked Joshua.
“Sort of. They went to our school and everyone was talking about it. Apparently the police were called when someone reported hearing gunshots and they scoured the area for us, only they didn’t know it was us. I was more than a little concerned because I knew who those guys were and they knew me from before. But Al wasn’t concerned in the least. He was glad he got back at them.”
“He could have blinded them,” said Rachel. “Al’s a bad man.”
“I can tell you that no one was blinded. I saw those guys later on, after graduation, and I can tell you that none of them went blind.”
“Were those the same guys who beat you up?” Joshua asked as he put his hand over his mouth, knowing he just misspoke.
Benny went dead silent for a moment when he heard his boy say that.
“When did you find out?” Benny asked as he lowered his head in shame.
“Mommy told us a long time ago,” said Joshua. “I’m sorry. I forgot it was a secret.”
“That’s okay,” said Benny. “I’m glad you know. Maybe you can learn something from it. If anyone is bullying you in school, take action now. You’ll regret it later on if you don’t.”
“Do you regret it?” asked Rachel, who was quietly listening as she finished her cookies.
“Yes, I do. Every day I regret not taking action.”
“I guess it’s too late now,” said Joshua as he lowered his line in the water. It was a few minutes passed 2:00 p.m. and time to start fishing.
“Guess so,” said Benny, looking away, not wanting to reveal what was inside his mind.