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The Abandoned Boat
Gilberto Mendoza
Collecting cans, mowing lawns, and washing cars are not the way you would expect middle school friends to spend their summer. However, when our youth minister told my two broth- ers, my three friends, and me that if we collected enough money to buy a small boat that he would take us fishing, we spent our summer doing any odd job that we could find. None of us had ever been fishing before, and when this offer was presented to us, we were overjoyed.
My two older brothers, Luis and Toby, and our three friends, Robert, Jesse, and Peter, and I spent every waking mo- ment trying to earn money to buy a boat. By the time summer was coming to an end, we still did not have enough funds. We had high hopes that our youth minister would feel sorry for us and take us fishing without a boat. However, he politely informed us that there would be no fishing trip. We were so disappointed that our dreams of catching enormous fish and sailing the seas in search of adventures would never be realized. With heavy hearts, we headed for home. Suddenly, Jesse remembered that he had seen an abandoned boat that we might be able to use for our fishing trip. He had seen the boat docked on a stream a few miles away and he was sure that nobody ever used it. Things were looking up for this fish-crazed group of misfits.
We seemed to walk forever, but nothing was going to stop us from reaching our destination. Finally, there it was, a green and white rowboat lying on the bank, looking all alone and neglected. We rushed to the boat with renewed energy, cheering loudly and giddy with laughter. We untied the boat and all six of us jumped inside and began to paddle down stream. Paddling was very difficult. The previous owner was not kind enough to leave the oars, so we had to use our hands. We paddled for what seemed an eternity, and finally, we could go no further. The stream had petered out and we were unable to reach home via the water. We did not want to leave the boat there for fear that it would be stolen. We decided to hoist the boat over our heads and walk it home. With the larger boys holding the ends and the smaller boys holding up the middle from underneath, off we went. Peter and I, being the youngest and the shortest, had to walk on tiptoes all the way home.
We reached home before dark and placed the boat in my backyard. We were so exhausted that we decided to leave the cleaning of the boat until the next day. We were so thrilled we finally had a boat that we were up at the crack of dawn. We washed her thoroughly and christened her, the S.S. Fish Catcher. We invited our youth minister over to my house to see the new boat. When he arrived, he looked at the boat, looked at us, and then looked at the boat again. He began to tell us of a friend of his who had a small green and white rowboat just like ours. His friend's rowboat had the same name as ours painted on the side. His friend's rowboat was also missing.
We knew from the scolding we received from him and our parents that our new boat was not truly abandoned. We had to return the boat to the place where we had found it. With sore muscles and low spirits, we trudged back to the stream with the boat over our heads. When we reached the stream, we had to use our hands to paddle again and spoke sadly of our dream of one day buying new oars. When we arrived to the place where we had found the boat, the owner was waiting for us and we immediately apologized. Seeing that we had washed her and no damage was done, he decided not to reprimand us. He did inform us that paddling would have been much easier if we had taken the oars lying on the bank. Walking back home, we each had thoughts of a fishing adventure that never came to pass.
Gilberto Mendoza
Collecting cans, mowing lawns, and washing cars are not the way you would expect middle school friends to spend their summer. However, when our youth minister told my two broth- ers, my three friends, and me that if we collected enough money to buy a small boat that he would take us fishing, we spent our summer doing any odd job that we could find. None of us had ever been fishing before, and when this offer was presented to us, we were overjoyed.
My two older brothers, Luis and Toby, and our three friends, Robert, Jesse, and Peter, and I spent every waking mo- ment trying to earn money to buy a boat. By the time summer was coming to an end, we still did not have enough funds. We had high hopes that our youth minister would feel sorry for us and take us fishing without a boat. However, he politely informed us that there would be no fishing trip. We were so disappointed that our dreams of catching enormous fish and sailing the seas in search of adventures would never be realized. With heavy hearts, we headed for home. Suddenly, Jesse remembered that he had seen an abandoned boat that we might be able to use for our fishing trip. He had seen the boat docked on a stream a few miles away and he was sure that nobody ever used it. Things were looking up for this fish-crazed group of misfits.
We seemed to walk forever, but nothing was going to stop us from reaching our destination. Finally, there it was, a green and white rowboat lying on the bank, looking all alone and neglected. We rushed to the boat with renewed energy, cheering loudly and giddy with laughter. We untied the boat and all six of us jumped inside and began to paddle down stream. Paddling was very difficult. The previous owner was not kind enough to leave the oars, so we had to use our hands. We paddled for what seemed an eternity, and finally, we could go no further. The stream had petered out and we were unable to reach home via the water. We did not want to leave the boat there for fear that it would be stolen. We decided to hoist the boat over our heads and walk it home. With the larger boys holding the ends and the smaller boys holding up the middle from underneath, off we went. Peter and I, being the youngest and the shortest, had to walk on tiptoes all the way home.
We reached home before dark and placed the boat in my backyard. We were so exhausted that we decided to leave the cleaning of the boat until the next day. We were so thrilled we finally had a boat that we were up at the crack of dawn. We washed her thoroughly and christened her, the S.S. Fish Catcher. We invited our youth minister over to my house to see the new boat. When he arrived, he looked at the boat, looked at us, and then looked at the boat again. He began to tell us of a friend of his who had a small green and white rowboat just like ours. His friend's rowboat had the same name as ours painted on the side. His friend's rowboat was also missing.
We knew from the scolding we received from him and our parents that our new boat was not truly abandoned. We had to return the boat to the place where we had found it. With sore muscles and low spirits, we trudged back to the stream with the boat over our heads. When we reached the stream, we had to use our hands to paddle again and spoke sadly of our dream of one day buying new oars. When we arrived to the place where we had found the boat, the owner was waiting for us and we immediately apologized. Seeing that we had washed her and no damage was done, he decided not to reprimand us. He did inform us that paddling would have been much easier if we had taken the oars lying on the bank. Walking back home, we each had thoughts of a fishing adventure that never came to pass.