June 17, 2008

he stuck it in his ear

Originally PUBLISHED January 10,2005

Have you ever been fishing, reared back for a mighty cast and found your rod going nowhere when you came forward? Sure, you have. Usually, you look behind you and find a bush or a tree that snagged your line, so that's no big deal. Just part of fishing.

But once, I didn't snag a bush or a tree. I stuck a hook right through a friend's ear. I didn't catch the little hangy-down part, either. I got him in the upper lobe and the hook went clean through to the other side. I almost threw him out of the boat when I followed through on my cast. Trust me. You'll GO where your ear leads you in that situation.

He screamed. I screamed. It was a bloody, screaming crisis. When I saw what happened, I knew that I couldn't just pull the hook out, so I told my friend to hold still. I grabbed a set of wirecutters and snipped the barb off the end of the hook; then, I pulled the hook out of my friend's ear, poured some Jim Beam on the wound and stuck a band-aid on it.

We kept on fishing, although I was called "bastard" and "cocksucker" for the rest of the day. But I didn't take offense. I could understand his behavior.

His EAR was hurting.