ANGLERS




On the paved shores of the Harlem Meer (one of six ponds in the city's park system which the State Department of Environmental Conservation—in cooperation with the New York City Parks Department, the New York City Department of the Aging, and the New York State Sea Grant—stocked with bullhead catfish on June 27 as part of an urban fishing program designed to stimulate city dwellers' interest in fishing and the outdoors), on a weekday afternoon in July:
"Gregory, how much worm should I use?"
"What you got there is enough, Andrew. Bet with your head, not over it."
Across the pond, a man standing under the trees started playing a three-note progression on the trumpet over and over again, holding each note a long time.
A boy pulled up a white tube sock with a yellow stripe and a blue stripe which had been dangling in the water, and something scuttled off it.
"Look, Gregory! Look at the lobster!"
"That ain't no lobster, fool, that's a crayfish. Throw him back. Throw him back to his mama."
An empty can of Sunkist orange (the new soft drink introduced a couple of months ago) came drifting by
"Did you pass this year?"
"Yeah, man, 'course I passed."
Across the pond, the man with the trumpet started playing each note in the three-note progression four times and in such a way as to hit it differently each time.
A plastic terrestrial globe came floating by, with just Antarctica above the waterline.
"We had a nice fish, but some people took it."
The arm of a Negro doll came floating by.
"Oh, man, my line's stuck. I have got to get it off. I have got to get it off."
"Pull on it, Derek."
"I don't get my line off, I can't get back in my house. I got my keys on there for a sinker."
The line came free, revealing a set of keys on an "I NY" key ring from a savings bank.
The man with the trumpet started playing "I Get a Kick Out of You."
An empty bag of Wise onion-garlic potato chips came floating by.
Two girls with their hair in cornrows took a look at four catfish in a yellow plastic bucket. "These boys should let the fish go," one girl said.
"Are you kidding? Those fish could die out in that water," the other girl said.


(1978)
THE FISH'S EYE. Copyright © 2002 by Ian Frazier. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.