Fishing for the Little Pike by Juhani Karila

Author:Juhani Karila
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Restless Books

13

Hoot listened to Elina’s plan with a fork in one hand and a knife in the other.

He had smoked them some perch. The fish lay fat and brown on a piece of waxed paper on the lid of the freezer. Hoot had already eaten one perch and was starting another. He shoved his fork into the slashed belly, pressed the tines against the fish’s spine, and pried its ribs open with his knife. Steam rose from its insides. Hoot wedged the blade of his knife under the spine and lifted it, grabbing a rib with his fingertips and peeling the spine away. He raked the meat from the bones with his fork and popped the pieces into his mouth.

They were sitting at the table just as they had been the evening before. There was a perch in front of Elina, too, but it was untouched.

Elina said that, according to her mother’s diary, stripefoots overwinter in hillside hollows in the woods, just like bears. They stumble out a little before midsummer and go on the hunt. In the old days, the stripefoots in Vuopio used to overwinter on the sandy ridges near Vaittaus. She and Hoot should go together to comb over the hillsides. With any luck they would find one, and if not they could try somewhere farther off. Of course, they would need something for bait. They could steal a reindeer from Asko. He kept a herd in a pen behind his house. If they went to ask with hat in hand at this hour, Asko would just ask questions. Better to just take a reindeer and pay him later. Elina had money. They could lead the reindeer into the woods and when they found a stripefoot’s nest they could tie the reindeer up nearby and prepare an ambush. Before long, a stripefoot would come after it. They stick to their territory, like goshawks do, that’s what her mother’s diary said. The stripefoot would try to pick the reindeer up and fly away with it to some safer spot. But it would fail, because they would have the reindeer securely tied up. They would wait for the monster mosquito to give up and sting the reindeer, and start to suck it dry. Then they could walk right up to it and shoot it in the head with the shotgun. Best not to trust it to a rifle. The bullet would just go right through it and make the mosquito angry. They had to shoot its head completely to pieces. Or they could chop it off with an ax. After that they could remove the stripefoot’s snout and bring it to the guy who had promised to help her with the knacky.

Hoot had one side of his perch filleted. He turned his plate a hundred and eighty degrees and started on the other side.

“What are you on?” he asked.

“What do you mean, what am I on?”

“What drug?”

“Nothing.”

Hoot lifted a forkful of fish, plucked a bone from the meat with his fingers, wiped it on the edge of his plate, and put the fork in his mouth.

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