“Who’s the kid?”

“His name’s Jackie.  Helps out with the boat, that’s all.”

“What do you mean ‘helps out’?  I see him out on that dock all day.  How’s that helping with your boat?”

“Listen Henry, you want the kid on your boat, go ahead and take him.”

“My fishing days are over.  I’m too old for that shit.  And that kid’s the last person I’d want to have around.”

“Ah hell.  He ain’t a bad kid.  Does whatever I tell him to do.”

“And what do you tell him?  To stay on the dock all day while you and your crew go out fishing?”

“Jackie’s not a bad kid, Henry.  You’re making judgments.  He don’t hurt no one.”

“He damn sure ain’t helping no one.  He’s out there on that dock when I open up the shop, and he stays out there until yous guys get back.”

“What’s the problem with that?”

“He wastes his whole goddam day waiting for you.”

“I don’t see what the problem is Henry.  Sounds like you got a stick up your ass.”

“A stick up my ass?  I got a stick up my ass?  How about I put this frying pan right up your ass?”

“Relax, Henry.  You’re too old to be getting in a huff like that.  Your heart can’t take it.”

“It ain’t none of your business what my heart can take.”

Henry turns around a bangs the frying pan down on the old stove.  “I don’t see why you don’t take that goddam kid with you.  You say he’s helping.  Take him with you.  I don’t want to look at him all goddam day.”

“Does he come over and bother you, Henry?”

“He bothers me just fine from out there.”

“You said it yourself, you wouldn’t take him on your boat, why would I take him on mine?”

“For fucks sake, he’s here for your!”  Henry slams a knife through a slap of butter and scrapes it off into the pan.  “You want him helping you, but you don’t take him out – I don’t understand it.”

The fisherman takes a swig from a beer bottle and rubs his hand over his mouth.  “Jackie helps get the boat ready in the morning, and he helps us unload when we get back.  That’s all.”

“You’re paying the kid to sit around on the dock all day?”

The fisherman raises his eyebrows and shrugs as he drinks.

“You ain’t paying that poor kid, are you?”

“We help him out.”

“How’s that, by wasting his whole goddam day?  You ain’t paying him a dime, say it.”

Henry turns around and puts his hands on the counter.

“I told you, Henry.  We help the kid out.”

“You got him working for food?”

“No.”

“See, that’s the problem with you.  You don’t give a shit about no one.  That boy’s out on that dock from sun-up until whenever the hell you get around to coming in.  You ain’t paying him, you ain’t feeding him – what, is he working off a debt?”

“It ain’t that.  Relax, Henry.  Jackie likes being out there.”

“My ass, he likes being out there.  That boy’s lost three quarters of his mind sitting out there.  I watch him.  While you’re out fishing and carrying on, I gotta look out this window and see that kid.  He ain’t right.  He’s out there talking to himself and spinning in circles.  I don’t blame him.  I’d lose my mind sitting out there all goddam day like that.” 

The fisherman finishes his beer, turns, and looks out the window toward the dock. 

“And what’s it for?  Nothing?  You ought to be paying that kid before he loses the rest of his mind.  It ain’t right.  He ain’t right.”

“That kid ain’t none of your business, Henry.  Close those shutters and you don’t see him at all.”

“I ain’t closing my goddam shutters and pretending he ain’t there.  He’s out there pissing off the end of the dock, throwing rocks at the ducks, I know he’s out there with the shutters open or closed.”

“Well, Henry, I don’t know what to tell you.”

Henry delicately lays a filet of fish in the pan with his bare hands and leans away from the splattering oil.  He turns back around to the fisherman.

“But I know what to tell you – take that boy out fishing, and keep him off my goddam dock.”

“That dock don’t belong to no one, Henry.”

“I’m the only one who’s gotta look at it all day.”  Henry leans over and adjusts the flame on the stove.  “The least you could do is pay the boy, or tell him he doesn’t have to sit out there in the sun all day.”

“I don’t tell him what he can or can’t do.  He helps us load up and unload, that’s all.” 

“For free?  No money, no fish – nothing?”

“Don’t worry about it, Henry.  I told you, we help him out.”

“How are you helping that kid?  You’re giving him brain problems, that’s what you’re doing.  He could be out helping you fish instead of dicking around on my dock all day.”

“It ain’t happening, Henry.”  The fisherman gets another beer from the fridge and uses his teeth to pry off the lid.  “Jackie don’t belong on no fishing boat.”

“Why’s that?”

“He just don’t.”

“He’ll learn.  You trained him to sit out on that dock all day.  Why can’t you train him to fish?  What is he, some kind of retard?”

The fisherman laughs and shakes his head.

“Well, don’t seem like you got much of a reason for leaving him behind then.  I’m telling you, I don’t want to see him on my dock no more.”

The fisherman, rolls his shoulders back and stretches his neck.  The skin on his face is red and thick from the sun.  His lips are callused and mostly covered by a thick beard.

“You want to know the truth about that boy, Henry?”

“No…I want sit here listening to your lies.”

“That boy ain’t no good.”

“Sure he ain’t no good.  Spends his days pissing off the edge of my dock.  He should be out fishing.”

“No.  That ain’t it.”  The fisherman swigs his beer and chuckles to himself.  “Jackie don’t want nothing to do with fishing.”

“That don’t make no type of sense.  He’s out here every goddam day.  Helping you load up and helping you pack out.”

“Henry, you ain’t listening.”

“Tell it then.”

“That boy…that boy’s some kind of pervert.”

Henry flips the fish in the pan and turns around to the fisherman.  “Some kind of pervert, you said?”

“Henry, we offer the boy money.  He don’t want it.  We offer him his share of the catch.  He don’t want that neither.  He wants something else.”

“What’s that?”

The fisherman grins and swivels his bottle on the countertop.

“Pussy.”

Henry turns away shaking his head.  He jostles the pan over the fire.

“That’s all he wants Henry.  The kid wants a little piece of pussy.”

“I knew he wasn’t right in the head.  I watch him.  Talking to himself, laughing at nothing.  I knew there was something wrong in his head.”

The fisherman leans in over the counter.  His voice drops, “He helps us out at the dock, and… well – we all pitch in to get the kid what he wants.”

“You’re telling me that boy’s out here all day long for some tail?”

The fisherman nods and takes another pull from his beer.  “That’s all Jackie-Boy wants.”

Henry scoops the fish out of the pan and lays it on a sheet of newspaper.

“You boys ain’t right.”  Henry shakes his head, “Pass me one of them beers.”

“On the dock all goddam day – for some pussy.”

Henry and the fisherman make eye contact.  They begin to laugh.