Rain Check

I ended up in jail because I had cancer and had stopped handling my business. Really, to have this make any sense I’d have to start by telling you that my urine had started to look like rust. I made an appointment with Dr. Clark who referred me to a urologist whose name I can’t pronounce.

Before I was diagnosed I had planned to go to the lake for a week to try to do some perch fishing from the south bank of a small creek. We used to go once a year, my son and I, and used cane poles with short lines and small hooks. That was the way my father had shown me. We would break the worms up into three or four pieces and save on bait.

In the evenings we would cook outside with a propane tank and burner, frying the perch whole in oil, I even had a special set of silverware I would bring with us that had small forks which made picking the meat off the bone easier.

They ran some tests and I was waiting for the results. I didn’t have anyone come with me. I figured it was just a kidney infection.

The urologist was a little brown man. Most of the time people like that end up sending their money right back to where they came from. In a way it’s selfless. Most of my friends talk about how they wish they’d give the jobs to people from here, but I think this doctor can be proud of what he does if he sends his money back to his family.

The doctor looked into his chart to find my name.

“Let’s see, Jeff erey, is that right?” He broke my name into two names.