#569 A Tangle by the Rapid River- Anthony Doerr
Like most stories about fishing, this one has a somber, quiet, tone to it. Mulligan is a recent retiree. He has three things going on in his life: his marriage, his fly fishing, and the woman he sees on the side.
He takes his daily fishing outing, but most days, he goes to see his other woman. That woman has now given him a sort of ultimatum. All Mulligan wants is for things to stay the same, and for people to let him live his life. The flow of the river, the slowly changing currents, the coming winter, the habits of the trout—these are things he understands and likes to contemplate, awake or in his sleep.
“When you get to be my age, Mulligan says, sleep is not so different from being awake. You kind of shut your eyes and you’re there.”
A dumb lapse in concentration and you can lose not only the fish, but the whole line.
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