Epiphany

Epiphany It was an incredible summer in 1950 the war was over things were getting back to normal, mother`s new boyfriend who worked at a factory had a rowboat and paid holiday leave. A Sunday early we rowed to a small island in the bay, mother had brought a blanket, sandwiches in brown paper bags mostly jam I think and two bottles of soft drink, water and cold milk that sun went off, and a thermos flask of coffee. The boyfriend gave me a line with hook on told me to go fishing- telling me what to do is not easy not even for me- in the shallow water near the pier as bait, I found a worm under a stone thread the living thing on the fishhook. the water was crystal clear had tiny fishes that looked like rainbows swimming about I saw the sky….I was in a trance thought I was what I saw took a step forward and landed in the water people came running helping me up back I was in real time mother came running too shouted at me as mothers do and worried about my delicate health. Rowing back into town again the boyfriend was grumpy suggested I had fallen into the water to get attention I said little in my defence how could I explain for a moment I had understood everything, but on the other hand he could have been right how is a boy supposed to know