The Tale of Johnny and Jilly.

This is a long one, so carve out some time if you are so inclined and enjoy:

The Tale of Johnny and Jilly.

This is the story of Johnny and Jilly; two young people from a small town by the sea. Every day they would go out fishing after school. They were raised in different families, and thus have learned different ways of fishing. Jilly worked from the shore, fishing with a homemade basket, while Johnny went out in a boat and hunted for big fish. She would wait for fish, and he would seek them out.

From a young age, Johnny was taught how to dive in order to spear fish. His goal was to hunt for a large trophy fish. There is a very lucrative bounty for the largest fish caught this way. The bounty is so large that it will feed him and his family for a lifetime or two. Rather than waste time on bluefish, sea bass, or small fish by the shore, he goes out every day and hunts underwater for monster fish. As a child, he watched the older boys and men hunt. He took good notes. The best swimmers, divers, and strategists always get something worthwhile. Every month this award is given away, so the competition is fierce. But Johnny’s father taught him well. Johnny’s father caught such a fish a long time ago, so he knows what it takes. In order to get really good at this, Johnny must run, and swim, and dive, and hold his breath, and learn how to read the ocean – which fish are in season, which fish are the monster fish’s prey. He has a long way to go, but he is determined to catch a prize. Nothing else will do. It is hard work and he doesn’t always see the big picture, but he is determined. And that matters with this strategy.

On the side of the banks he sees young kids and older people alike yanking out small fish all day every day. They put a piece of ham on a hook and BOOM; free fish. Johnny knows that what he is doing will win in the long run, but as he gets older he has his doubts. Sometimes when he is alone in his room at night be prays. Sometimes he even cries in frustration. Sometimes he even doubts his father. After all, those were the old days. Those hunting techniques don’t work any longer. Look at those idiots on the bank back slapping each other over a 2-3 pounder. Just how? Why? Why do we have to do all this work and waiting for a large fish that may never come when there are easy fish to be had right there on shore. It didn’t make sense to him, but he trusted. He believed.

Nonetheless, Johnny was tempted to abandon this approach. The shore-fisher boys try to lure him in, but the girls completely ignored him. It is a very attractive lifestyle. An hour or two of fishing and you are done for the day. However, as he watches those guys, he sees what happens when they get older. The fish they bring up in the long run are not always edible. Or if they are, they taste lousy. Furthermore, those fish don’t always come to the same spot. The tides change, and some seasons are bad. Those kids did not practice hunting skills like he did, so they have no choice but to shore fish at this point. Still he has doubts. This is hard work, and every experienced diver knows this.

“Get back out and try again” They would tell him. And day after day, he listened.

Jilly on the other hand simply stands on the shore with her friends. They drop a basket in the water with some bait and immediately pull up a handful of fish. She and her friends squeal with delight at this. They love doing this. It is soooo easy! It is great to be Jilly. She is now 18 years old and has been bringing in more fish each year than the year before. She is a great fisherwoman – better than the other girls around her, and everyone knows it. Her basket is sturdy, her lines are tightly woven, and the basket design is sheer perfection. her mom and dad made it just for her.

She was the envy of the town and all of the fisher boys wanted to work with her. And she knew it.

She sees other girls on the boats working with the hunter-fisher boys. These girls don’t hunt or fish. They would simply man the boat while the boys are diving. Little Virginia, Johnny’s younger sister, is one of these girls. She makes sure the anchor is properly set, the boat is functional, and the boys have food and fresh water when they come up for air. This job is harder than it looks. Sometimes she has to drag the boat off shore and into the water - and back again - all alone. It is really hot and tiring at times, but she knows what the boys go through. She tried diving once and she realizes that it is not for her. She wants to be a helper; a partner. In her family, this is a revered position that is perhaps more important than that of the hunter – for without her help, they simply cannot hunt. Her mother and father had this type of relationship. While they are humble people, they have a large beautiful family and they make more than enough to survive. But above all they have each other’s back. It has been this way for generations.

Some people resent them for being this way. To them it was outdated arrangement and a bad deal for the girls. And most of the townsfolk let them know how much they despised this arrangement. After all, why should the boy get all the glory?

But still they continue. They are always thankful for what they have. And they respect each other deeply for their respective contributions to the family.

Year after year, Johnny keeps honing his skills. He has tried to put out bait and wait for a monster fish to come, but that just doesn’t seem to work from a boat. “Why do the other kids have it so easy” he often thinks. Isn’t it better to just keep yanking fish in year after year? It looks so easy! "Gosh, why am I even here right now?" Nevertheless, he keeps going. Hunting and honing his skills.

One day while diving, he sees one. There are only 2 other young men in the water and they are 50 meters away, so this one is his. He has seen other large fish pulled out by other boys, but they are nothing like this one. His instincts kick in. His heart is racing like mad. He feels dizzy and cannot believe the size of the monster fish in front of him. MAN that thing is beautiful. Suddenly in that moment so many things become clear to him – the training, the waiting, the patience. He focuses, swimming slowly but deliberately towards this beautiful creature carefully so as to not startle it. The ocean currents and cloud cover are in his favor this day. Today just happens to be his 24th birthday. By the look of it, that fish is about his age. It makes him think for a second.

Spear in hand, he surged forward…

---

Jilly continues her routine day after day on the shore. Sometimes she resents these stupid fish. They are smelly, annoying and have sharp spine thingys. She often thinks “Why am I even here?” Girls like Virginia are so stupid and lame. Why don’t THEY have to fish, she thinks. Why do they have it so easy?

God this is all so stupid and boring and disgusting. But if her family is going to eat, she must fish. In fact, if SHE wants to eat, she has to fish. The alternative is the town free meal program for people who do not catch anything that day. They tax some fish from people who catch extra, and also tax some of the prize winnings to help. They are a kind and compassionate people. No one goes hungry here. Sure there are a few freeloaders, but that is small price to pay to keep people alive – and docile. Starving desperate people do desperate dangerous things.

So, this imperfect system works; for now.

---

Brother and sister team, Johnny and Virginia bring home their trophy fish, both of them beaming with pride. It takes small crew of friends and neighbors to carry this thing! The prize was enough to set Johnny up nicely for a lifetime. Sure they still had to work, but they have a lot of breathing room now. They will buy a small farm and live a good, but busy life from now on. The days of hunting on a boat are over for him.

The older successful hunters remained adept at their hunting skills, but only to teach the younger ones, and both of them looked forward to being teachers.

Virginia took pride in her family’s catch. After all it was a team effort and she gave him plenty of advice along the way. Sure she was mildly annoyed that Johnny got to have the benefit, but he now had a position to pay her back now. He knew from his years underwater who the best hunters were – and who the posers were. She is a great sister and an even better boat mate. Because of her expertise, ALL of the other hunter boys around her want her to be with them. After all, she helped Johnny catch the biggest fish anyone has seen in a long time. So naturally every serious boy wanted a partner who could help them hunt.

It was almost as if she were a celebrity, because suddenly Virginia had a huge line of boys calling on her day and night. She finally understood how those other girls felt. The attention was intoxicating! Wow. She never felt this way before. Almost every shore fisher boy greeted her and followed her around with their slick words and pickup lines. But she was not having any of that. She knew what they were all about and she would smile and keep walking. This made the shore-fisher boys every crazier. “Damn!” they would lament “Why aren’t these shore fisher girls like Virginia!”

But despite how nice it felt, it was nothing like when Davey paid her attention.

Davey was not the strongest or the best looking boy, but he worked very hard and had a calm quiet charm about him. He just seemed to know for certain he would catch a large fish one day. He just oozed with this confidence – although he was awkward in other ways. He was always open to his sister’s advice, but she knew that once the hunt began, HE was in charge. Everyone knows and respects this about Davey, especially the older men. Well, that is except for the lazy boys on the shore, who would tease him from time to time.

Johnny approved of Davey, and this made Virginia happy. Johnny often said that Davey was the best of all the hunter boys “after me of course!” Ha! He loved teasing her. But make no mistake. Davey was a force to be reckoned with. In the water, nobody was as agile and stealthy. In fact, had Davey been closer to that fish than Johnny was that day, Davey would surely be the one to have landed it.

After all, there is always some element of luck involved – being in the right place at the right time and all that.

Virginia, like many of the other girls, has been paying attention. She knows Davey’s strengths and she wants to partner with Davey very badly. What a life they could have! She knows that Davey is capable of catching an even bigger fish than Johnny. She would sooooo tease her big brother when the did! They always teased like that, but there was always a loving playfulness about it.

Davey tends to stand back a little and let the other boys fawn over Virginia. Davey would meet her gaze sometimes and smile, but he never seemed to make a move. He knew he had to do things carefully. After all, he had an older sister who taught him such things. So did his father, his aunts and his mother. They ALL liked Virginia and they respected her family. They all approved of this potential connection, so it almost felt preordained. Virginia was a good woman and she would make a great partner.

One day, while she was on the shore making a new rope for next season, Virginia wondered who she would work with since brother Johnny won that prize. Davey saw her there working, as she usually was. This was his moment. So he started down the path towards her. Why was he so nervous? He was NEVER this nervous. He paused, took a deep breath, tucked in his shirt and continued with a smile on his face and his heart in his throat and walked in her direction…

The next fishing season came along sooner than expected...

The first day of the season everyone was out in the sunshine. The same hard workers were out in their boats hunting for big fish, and Davey and Virginia were working together. They were bursting with confidence and enthusiasm. They may not catch the biggest fish ever, but they WERE going to win that prize some day. So each day felt easy. Just like an comfortable routine that they just knew would lead them to victory.

Many people were happy for them, but Virginia had a small problem. Every morning when she would prepare the boat, she had to walk past Jilly and the other girls. They would sometimes call her over for small talk. They seemed nice, but she knew what they said behind her back. Her mom warned her about this type of girl, so she kept a distance. But for some reason, they did not keep their distance from her. They always seemed to have an opinion to share, and they were usually bad opinions; especially Jilly. She would ask about Johnny and about Davey. Virginia hated when she did that. Neither Davey nor Johnny wanted such a girl. Fishing was always just so sooo easy for Jilly and all the shore fisher boys tripped over themselves for her. She would just there with the same bait catching the same fish year after year. God, why did this bother her so much? Virginia had it good with Davey, and she was grateful. But still. GOD, would they just STOP with the comments already!

A few years passed.

Virginia and Davey were together and very happy – they had several children and they lived in a humble but comfortable home just outside of town not far from Johnny and his family. After that large catch, they were the talk of the town for a while. They spent their days growing vegetables and tending to a few farm animals. Between their hard work and the prize money, they were able to live a very nice life. Their children were healthy and happy – but above all they were thankful gracious people. Most people either admired them or despised them. There were not many in between.

Johnny had also found a young woman with whom to partner. Like Virginia, she just seemed to get it. She did her part and he did his. She had learned all about hunting and farming, so not a lot of negotiating was necessary. Everyone just knew their part and did it.

Life was good for this brother and sister.

Downtown, however, things were not so good for everyone.

Jilly and the other 30-35 year old women, who had never settled with a good fisherman, were angry. They complained a LOT and very loudly about how hard it was to fish all alone. The fish were not as plentiful as before. Something about the bait they were using was not attracting as many fish as before. They were not starving, but things were getting desperate. VERY desperate. Jilly smiled at the shore fisher boys when she walked by, but inside she resented them. She had partnered with many of them over the years, but they just gave her a fish or two and walked away.

** Sometimes she would even have to give THEM fish.**

But year after year, it was the same old boys, and she was there using the same old bait. Nothing seemed to work the way it used to. This all felt so wrong. After all, she was popular and a great shore fisher in her early years. Why did Virginia and THOSE pathetic helper girls get to have it do well? She despised them – in fact, she despised everyone including herself. They clearly did not earn such a good life. Those hunter girls just got lucky. They got lucky with the fish, and they got lucky with the skills, and the boat, and ropes, and the hunter boys. In fact they seemed to have way too much good luck. She resented them from deep inside; sometimes it scared her. She wanted what they had. But all she got now was a few shore fisher boys making new promises – like they always did.

"I deserved better" she would tell herself.

“Screw this” Jilly thought one day. And so she walked over to where the hunter teams were putting their boats in the water. “Hi” she said to a man about her age. He was tying a bowline and smiling in the sun. He had great muscles and a permanent tan from working outside his whole life. William Blue turned and smiled, but completely ignored her.

“What is this? Did this old, loser, fisher guy just ignore me? Who the hell does he think he is! It is I who should look down on him!”

William had had a bad experience with a shore fisher woman once. He fell in love with a stunningly beautiful young woman years ago, Femeen, who promised that she knew how to manage a boat. She swore she show up for work every day on time. She was his dream come true. Sure, she was a shore fisher girl, but she was not like the others. He trusted her and he believed her. He was young and naïve, so he did not understand shore fisher girls so well.

Their first few days together in the boat, Femeen made quick work of the gear. She observed the hunter girls her whole life, so she knew the basics. She could not wait to catch a HUGE fish. Any day now, she thought. But hunting was not like shore fishing. It might take years to get results, but one had to have patience. She did not have patience; she wanted the prize NOW. She could live a good life on a farm, while William did the work. She could hang out with her friends and bask in the adulation at how she was able to partner with such a great hunter.

Femeen would be the envy of all the other girls.

Unfortunately, she became frustrated one day and simply gave up in the middle of a dive. It was a long hot day and everyone was frazzled. "This hunting crap is for losers" she thought. Besides, she missed the shore boys and their attention, and the fun, and the easy fish. So she jumped overboard after one of them called out to her. The boat anchor was not secure, and so the boat drifted out to sea. William was hunting below and barely made back to shore alive.

Strangely, most people sided with Femeen. :"William is an idiot and should have known better" and "What a simp!" they would say. Others considered him abusive for making a woman do all that work. What happened to chivalry and tradition!

He lost the boat and everything and had to start all over. William would never make that mistake again.

Jilly stood there staring at William, waiting for some sort of response, but he just kept working. He had given up on a partner at this point and just resigned himself to hunting on his own. He helped younger men learn to hunt too, and he taught them to stay away from shore fisher girls. “Don’t hate them” he would say, just smile and move along. They are not right for men like us. They have plenty of shore boys to choose from. They do their thing and we do ours. He derived great joy in this life. Oddly, he got a fair amount of attention from shore girls. He simply refused to deal with them.

He knew they were not looking to build a life, they were looking to capture one. They were hunters of men.

Jilly became increasingly resentful.

The food and tokens she got from the local food line are hardly enough to truly enjoy life. Sure it kept her safe, and warm, and fed. But she didn’t want those safe secure things. She wanted MORE. She wanted the big house on the hill. And there were only a few ways to get that. Either you partnered with good hunter, which happened once in a while for younger shore fisher girls. But this was impossible at her age. Besides, what the hell did she know about boats or hunting or anything of the sort for that matter? Besides, the younger hunter boys were interested in girls their own age, and the older single hunter men knew better.

They know what happens to a hunter man who partners with a shore girl.

The alternative was to hunt for her own trophy fish. a few other women did that. They lived alone in small shacks on the outskirts of town and tended to have a lot of cats. They did not have it all that great either, because who can run a farm alone? They always talked about their days as a shore fisher, stories that Jilly loved to hear. The older and younger women sometimes bonded over such stories. Man was it good back in those days. They pined for those days secretly, while at the same time complaining about how much better everyone else had it.

No. That would not be her. These women are fun to talk to, but they are pathetic.

Besides, why hunt for fish, when you can just snag a hunter? Jilly was a shrewd woman if nothing else.

But was Jilly to do? She was almost out of options. What a mess! Where did she go wrong? Clearly it was not her or her bait. It was the fish.

And the boys, they were all the same. God when did life get so tedious? Sure she still got plenty of attention, but the fishing was not the same any more. So day after day, she put her worn out shoddy basket back in the water with a fatty chunk of mystery meat and hope for a good catch.

Maybe today will be the day that a monster fish takes her bait. She waited and hoped. Yes. Today would be the day.

As she worked, she wondered what a good life would be like. She wanted something like Virginia had, but where were all THOSE boys? Certainly not on the shore. The hunter losers completely ignore her. Besides, they are beneath her. So she sat there crying, as she tried to repair her basket, fumbling for another piece of fatty bait meat. She shot her usual fake perfunctory smile at a shore fisher boy passing by. Maybe later, she thought.

Or maybe he is the one. She sighed deeply. She knew better. Shore boys were plentiful, but they were all the same. Every. Single. Time.

And as she watched the hunter boys and girls walk by day after day, they became almost like ghosts that she couldn’t even see anymore. They were just shadows in the backdrop of her life. Her bait could no longer catch enough fish, and her friends were all of pursuing their own lives. The shore was full of younger fisher girls who got all the fish and all the attention. What the hell were they using for bait!? And the boring tired old shore fisher mens kept at her every day. She hated them too.

In fact, she hated everyone because everyone is so stupid. Most of all she hated herself deep down inside.

So, wiping away her tears as her pathetic tattered fish basket sank into the clear blue water she looked around in a sort of confused stupor, and Jilly wondered:

“Where are all the good fishermen?”