“And he’d kill the motor. Pretty soon we’d stop moving. We weren’t to shore yet. The weeds pulled us to a stop and Dad got out in his waders and pulled the boat closer to shore, into the cattails and we’d hand him the decoy bag and the backpack and the guns and he’d set them in the blind there in the cattails.

“Me and my brother’d climb out and put on the waders. Dad’d smoke a cigarette while we untangled lines and weights. Then he’d direct us as we threw them out, tell us how to organize the spread depending on the wind and how late it was in the season. Then we’d arrange the blind, putting our shells in reach and throw the camo deke bags over the thermos and the backpack while Dad moved the boat farther down shore so it wouldn’t spook the birds. After he walked back along the shore and we settled in, we’d wait for dawn and for the first flights of birds.

“One time, it was late in the season, all the locals were gone and the northern flight hadn’t come in yet, we’d set up for four days and hadn’t seen a damn thing. A few singles flyin somewhere else, but that was it. Not even a coot or a mud hen, not even a grebe. The weather turned and even though it was a north wind with a little sleet, there weren’t any ducks landing. We’d seen some bills come in but they’d rafted up out in the middle of the lake and didn’t pay any attention to our dekes or calls.

“Anyway, it was on the fifth day and still nothing. Dad always said that just being outside was enough. But, the way he was real grumpy and smoked one cigarette after another, you could tell. Don’t let anyone tell you hunting isn’t a lot of work. It was getting dark. We’d been sitting there all day. We were pretty froze up and all the coffee was gone, and we heard her come in. A single. She didn’t call or anything. All we heard was her wings; when it’s real quiet and you’re listenin and used to sittin still, you can hear a lot. A goose’s wings are about three feet from tip to tip and we heard her dip down about twenty yards out from our spread. It was just gettin dark and we saw her struttin back and forth. Dad didn’t want to use the call so close cause it might startle her. So we waited and waited but she didn’t pull any closer.