Free A Child's Heart (Trent & Cassie's Story) A River City Novel by E. Ayers

enthusiasm in all of them. Cassie reached in her purse
and pulled out a small digital camera to capture the moment.
    Trent grabbed his son’s rod and helped him reel it
in. “Cas, grab the net and be ready.” A few seconds later, Trent
was barking orders. Cassie grabbed the pole while Trent swooped the
large fish into the net. “Nice! You did a great job, Shawn. I think
we’ll have him for dinner tomorrow night.”
    “I caught a fish! I caught a fish! I did it!”
    “What is it? Ohmigod, there goes your line, Trent!”
Cassie shouted and grabbed his pole.”
    “Easy, do it the same way as Shawn.”
    Trent dropped the fish into an old, ice-filled
cooler, then took his line from Cassie. Shawn was so excited that
she put her arm around his waist and pulled him into her lap.
    “Hold my line while I put another worm on your
hook.”
    Trent pulled in another trout and deposited it into
the cooler. Someone else on the pier also caught one and Trent
helped the legless man in the wheelchair with a Vietnam Veteran cap
by scooping the large fish into his long handled net. Then things
calmed down for a little while, until Cassie accidentally cast her
line over Shawn’s, tangling both lines. Cassie caught a little
sunny and carefully removed the hook and set the small fish
free.
    They caught several more fish, and Shawn was thrilled
with each one. It didn’t take him long to learn what to do.
    Trent looked at the overhead sun and then at his
watch. He decided it was time to pull in their lines and have
sandwiches, so they retreated to the picnic tables on the shore.
Trent handed his son a small, unmarked pill bottle along with
Shawn’s sandwich. The boy took a bite of his bologna sandwich,
emptied the contents of the bottle into his hand, popped the pills
into his mouth, and swallowed.
    “I do hope you are planning to have dinner at my
house tomorrow. Looks as though we have at least four nice fillets
of trout.”
    “I’d love to have dinner at your house. This has been
so much fun.”
    “Good, it’s a date. And what exactly is that
pendent?”
    “Don’t ask.”
    “What do you mean?”
    Her eyes narrowed and she looked at Shawn engrossed
in his salad.
    “What?”
    “Have you ever heard of The Mano Fico?”
    Trent shook his head.
    “It’s an ancient Roman symbol with a fig flower and a
hand.” She held her hand up and tucked her thumb between her index
and middle finger. “The fig flower is supposed to represent the
female…” She held her hand palm up. “Because it looks like a
female’s…”
    Trent shrugged.
    She eyed Shawn and then pointed to her lap.
    “Oh!” Heat warmed his cheeks.
    “The hand represents today’s single finger
salute.”
    He nodded.
    “Fico is where we get today’s F word.”
    Trent held up his hand to signal her to stop. She
raised her eyebrows at him and continued. “The amber is exactly
what you probably think it is except the whole thing has been
modernized. This is the fig flower, and instead of the hand, this
is the phallus--”
    Shawn’s head shot up and he looked at Cassie.
    Her fingers covered her mouth. “Please tell me that’s
not part of his vocabulary.”
    “What?” Shawn asked.
    Trent watched the flush rise up her neck and over her
cheeks. “I don’t think so,” he answered. “Not a word I use on a
regular basis. I doubt that I’ve ever used it in conversation.”
    “What?” Shawn asked again.
    This time it was Cassie who answered, “Phallus, it’s
the symbol of a man’s penis.”
    “What’s that got to do with your necklace?”
    Trent realized his son was listening to the adult
conversation, and Cassie’s giggle wasn’t helping matters. “Cas has
an interesting symbolic necklace.”
    Shawn gazed at the pendant, then squinted his eyes,
and wrinkled his nose. He put his fork down and in a flash was at
Cassie’s side, staring intently at her necklace. Then he picked it
up and studied it. “Looks like a fancy bell with a clacker that’s
too