Lesson B Main?    First story?

Lesson B - 44 More Words (most-used: 395-438)

lot   nothing    course   stay   wheel   full   force   blue   object  decide   surface  deep   moon    island    foot    yet    busy    test  record*    boat    common   gold  possible    plane   age   dry wonder   laugh    ago   check    game    shape    yes  miss   heat  snow   bed   bring    sit   perhaps   fill   east   weight    language

And now, your second Lesson B Story  .........Sound.....mp3?

BOY ON THE WATER   

Tomas was a young boy who always wanted to fish.  This small boat was his first work on the water.

"Stay on course!" said the older man. They were on the high part of the boat. The older man looked out over the surface of the blue water. His aged eyes were checking for schools of fish. Two other men were sitting down lower in the back of the small fishing boat. They were drinking and laughing. 

They started the day hours ago, when the moon was still up.  The new sun was small in the east then. Now that sun was the heat right over their heads.

"See any fish yet?" said one of the men from the back.

The older man decided where the fish would be. He saw many birds above the water, and  the birds came down from the air to eat fish. The old man knew a lot about fish. The men in the back gave him money. For the day, he would take them out to deep water and find fish for them.

"Turn toward about 2 o'clock" he told little Tomas. And then to the men below: "Perhaps the water is full of fish over by that island."

Tomas turned toward the island. There was no snow on those green mountains. 

"That's a good boy. You go help them with their lines." The older man took the wheel from Tomas.  Now the boy's work was to help the men in the back who had all the drinks, and all the money.

He helped them to put weight on their lines. Then he helped them bring in their fish. It was all a game to these laughing, drinking men with the money. Soon there were fish in the back of the boat. Nothing was dry any more. 

"Do you like this work, boy?" said one of the men.

"Yes, I do." said little Tomas. The man handed Tomas some money.

"You like that as well," said the drinking man. The two men laughed again.

Just then a very large, very dark shape moved under the boat.

"What was THAT?" said one of the men. He stopped drinking. His eyes were big.

"That's old Big Teeth," said the old man at the wheel, from above. "We named him because we always see him out here, but we never can get old Big Teeth in the boat."

Just then the line went out of the hand of the man with big eyes. Tomas went down to try to get the line before it went into the sea. He missed it at first. Then he got it in his hand, but it pulled him toward the sea. The other man held Tomas' foot with one hand, so the fish did not pull Tomas into the water. 

"Good boy," the man said.

 "Good man," the boy said, holding on to the big fish with all the force he had.

"That's Big Teeth! " said the older man at the wheel. "We've got Big Teeth!"

"Or he's got us," cried little Tomas.

"I wonder if he's a record," said the man holding Tomas's foot. "That's our object out there, that's our real test… to get a record fish." 

They were all busy pulling on the one common line. Then, in a second, the water parted and the large dark fish was above them, like an airplane. He came down hard in the back of the boat.  Big Teeth looked right into Tomas's eyes. Tomas would be his next food.

"That's not possible!" said one man. Then the two big men ran away, into the small room with beds. It was under the place where the old man was driving the boat. They watched Tomas out a small opening.  "He's all yours, boy!" they said, laughing and filling more drinks. 

Big Teeth turned his body toward Tomas, and Tomas ran to the other side of the boat. The large fish moved his wet body toward Tomas again. The fish's big head was trying to eat some part of the little boy.

"My money's on the fish," laughed one of the drinking men in the little room. They both held the door shut and looked out the small opening at Tomas.

Tomas could not get away from the large fish in the back of the boat. Then he saw weights they used for the fishing lines. He took them up, all at once, and brought them down on the head of the large fish. Big Teeth was still now. He was a great fish but… he was in too much air, and too little water.

"You lose," said one of the drinking men to the other. "And we have a record fish!"

Tomas heard them laughing. Now looked into the eyes of Big Teeth. This large fish needed help. Tomas pulled the big fish to the side of the boat, and helped him back into the water. In a moment, Big Teeth was gone into the sea.

The men came out of the room with their drinks. "You gave our fish back to the sea!" He looked hard at the boy. "That fish was our record fish."

The old man came down from his wheel to talk to the two men. "That was the boy's fish." 

"That was our fish. You should do something about that boy, because you're getting our money."

"OK, that's simple: I won't take your money," said the old man. "But I'll take you back now."

"But…But we have money for you. And for the boy, we have a little gold piece…" the man held a small piece of gold up to the sun.

Tomas looked up, and pulled out the paper money the man had given him. "This is yours," he said, handing the money back. "And I don't want your gold. You…will need it…Others will like it, I know."

As the boat turned back to land, Tomas looked back. He thought he saw the head of a large fish saying "See you", in a language only they knew.