PIKE

‘Where’d you catch it?’
‘You know the lake at Donnington?’ he said.
‘Donnington, where’s that to then?’ I said.
‘Near Chipping Sodbury you know it’s where they have the horse trials.’
‘Where they have the horse trials? Donnington near Chipping Sodbury?’
‘Yes,’ getting more insistent turned in his chair looking at me, ‘Chipping Sodbury near Yate.’
‘Yes I know where Chipping Sodbury is but I don’t know a Donnington near there.’
‘Where they have the horse trials.’
‘You mean Badminton that’s where they have the horse trials, north of Chipping Sodbury,’ I said.
‘Yeh okay but he called the lake “Donnington Lake”.’
‘Alright but what about it?’ I asked
‘Well I caught it there, the pike about this big,’ he showed me with his hands apart the width of him, ‘and he caught one this big,’ he moved his hands apart some more.
‘Did you eat it then?’
‘He took it off me and took one of the eyes out was this big it was,’ he said making a hole with his thumb and forefinger, ‘and he went with the eye to his dad who was there but he’s dead now so’s his wife think he died of a heart attack maybe twenty thirty years ago...
‘...yeh, yeh, yeh, what did he do with the pike’s eye?’
‘..he covered one of his eyes and went to his dad said, “ah, ah, dad, dad, I’ve lost one my eyes look look”, holding up the eye.’
‘What his dad do?’ I asked.
‘He was pissed off a bit then we took them home and cooked them.’
‘You mean the fish?’
‘Yes, the fish, the ones we caught’ he said.
‘Did you eat it then?’
‘Yeh, I had some but I didn’t like it it had a strong taste and I didn’t like it.’