With apologies to O. Henry’s “Gift of the Magi.”
EIGHTEEN DOLLARS AND fifty cents. That was all the money Bella had.
Most of it was in quarters and dimes, saved one at a time by bargain hunting the tackle stores for hooks, fishing line and the other essentials for life on the river.
Bella and her husband, Ray Bob, lived on a gravel bar along the Hoh River. They had moved to the river to go fishing, but it was raining too hard to fish.
Ray Bob was a fishing guide and nobody wanted to go fishing in a flood when you couldn’t make it to the boat launch.
Bella looked out onto the gray river under a gray sky and knew that they’d be broke for Christmas.
Bella counted the money three times, had a good cry and then powdered her cheeks with some egg cure Ray Bob had left on the kitchen table.
They had met while fishing on the river.
Ray Bob had given Bella a fly he tied himself. Her cast was as smooth as maple syrup, clear across the river without a ripple on the water.
She snagged a big bull trout. It bent Bella’s fine bamboo rod nearly double and stripped the drag washers off her reel.
If there was one possession in which Bella took pride, it was her fine bamboo fly rod made from Tonkin cane her daddy brought back from the war. It was such a fine rod that if Bella and the Queen of Sheba ever fished on the same river, Bella would out fish her 10 to 1 using dull hooks.
And if King Solomon himself ever showed his face on the river, he’d be humbled by Ray Bob.
He fished the Ray bobber. Ray Bob had been named after the Ray bobber, the best steelhead lure ever invented.
No longer manufactured, the Ray bobber could only be found out on the river, after it had been lost by another fisherman.
Ray Bob had the largest collection of Ray bobbers in the country, but he had no place to put them.
Ray Bob kept his lures in a bucket. It was humiliating to watch him hunting lures in a bucket every time he wanted to tie one on.
What Ray Bob really needed was a tackle box for his Ray bobbers.
Eighteen dollars and fifty cents. It was all the money Bella had for Ray Bob’s Christmas present. She took her fine bamboo rod down to a tackle store. There was a sign in the window that said, “We buy gear.”
She sold her fine bamboo rod at the tackle store and bought Ray Bob a gift, a tackle box for his Ray bobbers. With the money left over, she got a tuna pole with a roller tip.
By 7 o’clock, the hot buttered eggnog was ready. Ray Bob came through the door of the little travel trailer. There were holes in his rain gear. He had leaky boots. His eyes settled on the tuna pole.
“What happened to your fly rod?” he asked.
“I sold it to buy you a present. Here, it’s a tackle box on wheels. It’s big enough to hold all your Ray bobbers,” Bella said. “It might even help you walk upright.”
“That’s a nice present,” Ray Bob said, “but I sold all my Ray bobbers so I could buy your present. It’s a brand-new fly reel.”
People give gifts at Christmas to commemorate the Magi giving gifts to the Christ child.
The Magi were wise men.
Nobody said fishing guides were wise. But we still give the best gifts we have.
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Pat Neal is a Hoh River fishing and rafting guide and “wilderness gossip columnist” whose column appears here every Wednesday.
He can be reached at 360-683-9867 or by email via patnealproductions@gmail.com.
