My idol, Elliot

When I was growing up, it was just me and my mom. She worked as a CPA for one of the largest paper producing companies in the country. One summer, she was given a two month special assignment to both estimate & audit the inventory of trees her company held in reserve on over two million acres of government forest land in a rural area of Montana. 

I had the option of staying with my grandparents, but I decided I would go with my Mom even though I fully understood there wasn’t much to do . Her company owned a number of cabins in the area for their employees and families to stay in when employees were given lengthy assignments at their timber mill offices located at the edge of the forest preserve. 

When we landed at the small airport, an employee met and greeted us. He shuffled us off about 20 miles to our cabin practically out in the middle of nowhere. I thought it would be kind of unique to live temporarily in a quaint modest log cabin with a fireplace and nothing but clean fresh air to breath. 

The employee advised us the company would shuttle a bus by our place every two hours during weekdays ( since there were a number of employee cabins along the way ) to take me back and forth to the community center 15 miles down the road if I wanted to go while my mom was at work. The company employee handed my mom a set of keys to a company SUV parked outside for both her business and private use. 

That weekend, my mom and I drove around discovering what the area had to offer. We noticed a vast lake about a mile from our cabin at the edge of a mountain. When we circled it, we observed a few people fishing for trout in small boats and from the shoreline. My Mom remarked I should try my hand at fishing because trout was one of her very, very favorites.

For the first week, I went to the community center every day. But I found it to be rather boring. All there was to do was play cards and board games mostly. So, the following week, I decide to just hang out at our cabin, read books and hike around. I was goofing about by the shed just outside our backdoor one afternoon, when, out of curiosity, I opened the door to see what was inside. Right away, I noticed five fishing polls and a tackle box loaded with weights, lures and hooks. 

The thought of fishing suddenly crossed my mind. So, I grabbed a poll & tackle box, and took a short cut directly to the lake through a path in the forest that I noticed when we first moved into our cabin. 

Given I really didn’t know how to fish, I didn’t want to make a fool of myself. So I decided not to cast my line in from one of three boat docks way on the other side of the lake like everyone else. Instead, I found a really neat little cove on the fringe of the lake closest to our cabin that was deserted. I sat down on a big rock, baited my line and cast it into the water. I didn’t catch any anything, but I sure had a good time and wanted to go back the following day.

The next afternoon, I headed back to my fishing spot. I cast my line into the water and decided to read a book for a while. About two hours had passed when I noticed a green jeep off in the distance circling the lake. The jeep appeared coming towards me. It pulled up about 100 yards from where I sat and stopped. A park ranger got out and walked down the hill towards me.

I didn’t think I was doing anything wrong, so I left my line in the water. When the ranger strolled up, he said, “ Howdy, how are you today?” 

I replied, “Fine thanks.” 

He certainly was a very good looking man for a park ranger, I thought to myself. He reminded me of one of my friend’s older handsome brother’s only he looked to be in his late twenties or early thirties. When I stood up, he was about a head and a half taller than me. His slightly wavy black hair helped accent his incredible striking blue eyes. He could have been a male model easily I thought to myself. 

He smiled and asked, “Been fishing long?”

I explained that I had been fishing for about two hours, but wasn’t having any luck.

The ranger smiled again and asked if he could see my fishing license.

“Fishing license?”, I asked myself, “I didn’t know I was supposed to have one.” 

I replied, “Gezzzz-- I’m sorry, I didn’t know I needed one”. 

He kindly explained it was a federal offense to be fishing without a license since I was on US Government land. He added there was a sign posted at the docks where most people fished that stated fishing without a license was punishable by up to $2,000 fine and 18 months in jail. 

The ranger pulled out a small pad of paper in his front shirt pocket and asked me my name, date of birth, and where I was lived.

Very nervously, I gave him my name (Ryan Scott) my date of birth and explained that I was staying in cabin 23 Rt. #11 just down the path with my Mom who worked for the paper mill company. 

He pulled a radio hooked to his belt, turned around and casually walked about 20 feet away from me where he could get better reception . I couldn’t make out who he was talking to, or what he was saying, but I did manage to overhear him spell out my name, DOB and address to someone on the other end. 

Within seconds, all the blood rushed out of my face and my body began to shiver. I thought he was going to take me in for breaking the law. My eyes suddenly got watery and I began to sniffle uncontrollably.

When he signed off and clipped the radio back to his belt, he turned around and walked back towards me. It was obvious he could see me standing there completely terrified and almost in shock. He exclaimed, “ Hey there young fellow, what’s wrong?” 

With my voice shaking, I replied, “I don’t want to be arrested --I didn’t think I was doing anything wrong, sir.”

The ranger smiled and pulled a handkerchief from his pocket. He looked into my eyes almost like a mother would do and voiced in bewilderment as if to ask a question , “Arrest you! I’m not going to arrest you. What gave you that idea?”

I replied in a trembling voice, “ You’re not? I heard you give my name and address to someone on the radio--so I thought you were going to take me in for breaking the law.”

This time like a father would do for his grieving son, he wiped my tears with his handkerchief and then held the scarf up to my nose. He told me to blow hard until all the snot from my nostrils was cleared. He folded the handkerchief and then put it back into his pocket. 

He said, “ I’m sorry you got frightened. All I was doing was taking to Sara who owns the general store down the road. I gave her your name, DOB and address so she could start filling out a fishing license for you. I want it to be ready by the time we get there so we don’t have to wait”, as a smile crossed his face”.

I asked in amazement, “You mean you’re not going to arrest me?”

The ranger replied, “ What for? You didn’t know --and besides you weren’t really fishing, Right?” 

A smile finally crossed my face and I replied,” Right--it’s just our little secret.”

He smiled and exclaimed -- “Yea -- it’s just our little secret, Ryan. Now come on-- let’s go and get you a fishing license so you can fish legally.” 

Suddenly I felt a special chemistry between us unlike anything I had ever experienced between me and another male even though I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. I did know however that the ranger was my mentor, protector and good friend rolled up into one even though we just met and I didn’t even know him yet. But there was also a special feeling I had for him. And, I could sense he held a special feeling for me as well. 

We walked up the hill and got into his jeep. On the way, he introduced himself as Elliot. I told him I had a good friend named Elliot and always loved that name. He looked over at me and gave me a pleasant smile.

When we arrived at the general store, we got out of the jeep and went inside. Elliot ushered me to the back where Sara stood behind the counter. He kindly introduced us and then Sara handed me my fishing license. I forgot that I didn’t have any money, but Elliot pulled out his wallet before I could say a word and dropped a twenty dollar bill on the counter. 

He then told Sara to get me a tin bucket, wooden cutting board, fishing cap, slab of pork-salt and a beautiful six inch sportsman’s stainless steel serrated cutting knife with a maple wood handle and cowhide leather holster that laid in the glass counter just below. It was absolutely beautiful! Elliot causally flopped down another forty bucks and thanked Sara for everything.

When we got back into his jeep, I was very grateful and offered to try and pay him back. But he just smiled and said, “Save you’re money, Ryan, it’s just our little secret, Right? Besides if you are going to fish, you need to have the right stuff to fish with, Right?” 

I smiled and remarked, “Right!” 

He took my new fishing cap out of the bag and proudly fitted it to my head. He looked into my eyes with a beautiful smile and said, “There now Ryan-- now you look like a real fisherman and a very, very handsome one at that.” 

When I smiled back, Elliot could see by my innocent eyes, how grateful I truly was. 

We drove back to my spot where we talked about fishing on the way. Once we walked back down the hill, Elliot said , “Come with me Ryan --let me show you where the fish really are---I fish here all the time myself.” 

We walked almost 500 yards through a heavy wooded area of the forest to another small cove. But this cove was completely isolated and hidden from the lake. Elliot exclaimed, “Here’s where the trout are because this area is shaded and therefore the water is cooler which the trout prefer, but this is just our secret , Right?” I smiled and replied, “ Right , this is just our secret, Elliot, I promise”. 

“And for some reason, trout love pork-salt, at least the trout in this lake do, which again is just our little secret”, exclaimed Elliot. 

He baited my line with a small slice of the pork-salt and told me to cast it into the cold water. 

Only ten minutes had passed before I caught my first fish. I was so damn excited! Elliot quickly showed me how to reel my line in, unhook the fish and re-bait the hook. Within 90 minutes, I caught five huge trout which was the full quota I could catch for the day. Elliot gladly showed me afterwards how to clean my fish with my awesome new stainless steel knife on my new wooden cutting board.

I was so happy for all Elliot had done, I gave him a big hug. He hugged me back and looked into my innocent eyes with his beautiful blue ones as if he almost wanted to kiss me. But he just smiled and said, “Come on Ryan-- let me take you home and we’ll do it again tomorrow.” 

When we drove me up to my cabin, my mom was already home. She was so excited that I spent the day fishing and that I caught five huge trout. She really took a liking to my new fishing buddy, Elliot, right away since he taught me how to fish. My mom insisted he stay for dinner because she wanted to cook the trout for us.