Old Dream, New Adventure

Thirsty Seniors: Episode 2  

Margaret and Maddie felt light-headed but had yet to recognize what was happening to them. “What did you say you put in that pineapple juice?”  Maddie asked Junie.  “Must be the flavored effervescent,” Junie replied giggling, just as there was a tug on Maddie’s fishing line who reached for her notes on how to reel in a fish but quickly realized this was no time for reading, the fish was escaping with the bait and pulling her into the pier railing. Junie quickly bear-hugged Maddie around the waist to hold her steady; Margaret grabbed the fishing net to hold it over the railing but slammed into it and dropped the net in the water.They laughed with delight and confusion, shouting and squealing, “Hold on Maddie, hold on!” Finally, she remembered to reel in, give the line slack, reel in, give the line slack; but on the last try, she lost the fish. Bent-over laughing, they deteriorated into staggering drunks.

     “You spiked that pineapple juice, didn’t you!” Margaret shouted at Junie who simply grinned and poured another round of vodka laced pineapple juice into their cups. No one really cared, until Margaret remembered she was the one to drive everyone home. Instead, she carefully walked to the pier fish and bait shop where she got the attendant to call an Uber van; but only after he gave her a severe tongue lashing and threatened to ban her and her drunken friends from this family friendly fishing pier. Drinking alcohol on the pier was prohibited. 

     That morning’s event was like a fog in Maddie’s mind as she slowly opened her eyes from a long nap on the sofa, and with a punishing headache. She wanted the girls to experience another learning adventure. Poor Margaret, Maddie thought, had suffered the embarrassment of being lectured to by a boy young enough to be her grandson. 

     For decades, Maddie had imagined herself a sitting shadow in a graying dawn, gazing at an orange-yellow glow rising over a horizon, sipping hot coffee from a thermos with a fishing line swaying in the water. She saw herself lost in the peaceful rhythm of a slow-moving stream where the bank was filled with bouquets of tall wild flowering weeds, scattered patches of overgrown grasses, where willow-like trees stood guard. Her mid-century upbringing ruled this as man’s space, a woman merely packed his lunch. But the Thirsty Seniors club rules were that there were no rules in their pursuit to try something new; it gave her the courage to chase her old woman’s dream. Despite the throbbing in her head, she felt it worth the beating in her heart.