epiphany

Epiphany  
 
It was an incredible summer in 1950 the war was over things were getting  
back to normal, mother's new boyfriend who worked at a factory had  
a rowboat and paid holiday leave. A Sunday early we rowed to a small island  
in the bay, mother had brought a blanket, sandwiches in brown paper bags
mostly jam I think and two bottles of soft drink, water and cold milk that soon
was off, and a thermos flask of coffee. The boyfriend gave me a line with  
a hook on told me to go fishing- telling me what to do is not easy not even for me-
in the shallow water near the pier as bait, I found a worm under a stone thread  
the living thing on the fishhook.
the water was crystal clear had tiny fishes that looked like rainbows swimming  
about I saw the sky I was in a trance thought I was what I saw took a step  
forward and landed in the water people came running helping me up back I was  
in real time mother came running too shouted at me as mothers do and worried
about my delicate health. Rowing back into town again the boyfriend was grumpy  
and suggested I had fallen into the water to get the attention I said little in my defence
how could I explain for a moment I had understood everything, but on the other?  
the hand he could have been right, how is a boy supposed to know