Sharkman's Demise
by Lucretia "lady" Randle

Caroline was a sweet woman, always giving to others before herself.

We all assumed that's why her first 2 marriages failed, they had taken what they needed and moved on.

She had 4 beautiful children, and when it was just her and them they were spoiled by her love.

James had lived a horrible life until his 18th birthday, when he escaped his mother's tyranny.

No one would have ever expected the two of these people coming together.

Her, 34 with 4 children and him all of 18 and seeds to sow, but, one night they both were attending a movie alone, fate stepped in and these two hearts were brought together, much to the chagrin of Caroline's 4 children.

Her older daughters, already in their teens, disapproved of this boy trying to become part of their mother's life and made it clear every chance they got. They would purposely ignore him and play him against their mother, but Caroline fell in love with him and would not allow them to force him away. Things were rough that first year, James worked long days trying to keep a roof over his families head and Caroline worked right along side of him. They moved around a bit, but finally settled down into a nice home in town. But the children never accepted him.

When things were pretty much settled James took up his first love again, fishing. He would leave first thing in the morning and come home at dusk every day he could. Caroline would go with when she could or when she had nothing better to do.

This went on for a year or so until Caroline decided it was time that she got to choose what they would do sometimes instead of it always being his hobbies. James would have none of this and refused to stop his fishing. So, Caroline took up a hobby of her own.

She had always loved writing and in her younger school days would even be paid for doing it. She decided to see if anything would come of it now as she was older. She bought herself a computer and began joining groups of writers, reading others works and honing her own skills. She had one authur in her groups that she would read over and over everything he posted.

The more she read of his stories the more she was convinced she could do this.

James and Caroline stayed married 25 years, had seen two of her daughters get married, 1 get her masters degree and her son go on to be a phys ed teacher at the local elementary school.

If you ask Caroline then what made their marriage work she would say fishing, because the more he fished the happier they were (and the kids would even have to agree to this) James loved to fish, especially for his beloved shark. People would stop and watch him until it grew dark and chilled and still he would fish. He had often talked about swimming with his beloved creatures, yes he was very gentle with his catch…more so than he was with his human companions I suppose.

While James fished Caroline read, wrote and researched and waited. Years later, on a beautiful summer morning Caroline was called to come to the pier where James fished.

She pleaded with the officer on the line to tell her what was wrong...any clue of why...but all he said is she would have to come to the pier...

She arrived at the pier, shortly thereafter, to see it taped off with the normal yellow investigation tape. There were divers entering and exiting the water...officers questioning passers by and when they noticed Caroline they came to her. "ma'am, was your husband fishing last night?"

Caroline looked at the officer trying to remain calm and focused, she answered" yes, he always fished here at night."

The officer was taking notes of everything as Caroline described his clothes, his demeanor and all of his equipment he would bring...She remained calm, although the officer noticed tears in her eyes.

"ma'am we have accounted for everything except the pole you call the shark pole and your husband is there anything more you can tell us....?"

Caroline hesitated and feigned disbelief..."he always said he wanted to swim with the sharks...and he did quite often...he has the scars to prove it....do you think???" and her words trailed off into mere mumblings of worry ( or that's what was believed no one heard her silent laughter).

The search continued for 3 days and was called off for lack of any evidence, and listed the case as a disappearance no foul play. The officers released James's belongings to Caroline, who promptly buried them in the basement. She put it all behind the other unwanted belongings that James had collected over the years, including several large buckets that had only been used once for chumming.

No one ever knew what happened that night, but Caroline remembers the sharks in a frenzy as she chummed the water for her husband...no one ever knew what was in those buckets...no one but Caroline...and...oh...yes....James.