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"No," replied Abby, "Grandma Anna died of cancer when I was little. Mom says she saw me when I was a baby, but I never met Grandpa Yoichi. He committed suicide before I was born."

At once, the young man quickly became somber.

"Why did he kill himself?" wondered Jake.

"It was because of gambling debts," explained Abby. "When Grandpa Yoichi was disinherited, he decided to jump off a bridge instead of facing his creditors. Anyway, after he died, Grandma Anna brought Mom to Three Mile Bay, because this is where Grandma Anna had grown up as a child. Anderson was her maiden name. Her parents lived in this house nearly their entire lives. I was told that they were good Christians."

Interested, Jake listened to Abby's brief narrative of her family's history.

"This is Mom and Dad on the day they got married," said Abby, bringing down another picture frame from her dresser. "Dad had first seen Mom at the airport in Tokyo. They kept running into each other on the journey to Three Mile Bay, so they got married two days after arriving!"

"It was a little longer than that!" exclaimed Izumi from the master bedroom down the hall.

"Okay," revised Abby, laughingly, "two and a half days! Jake, they only dated once!"

"It wasn't a date," refuted Izumi, "it was a Birthday lunch!"

"Mom had just turned eighteen," Abby explained in half a whisper.

"And we didn't get married because we kept 'running into each other'!" continued the mother.

Abby showed Jake another photo of her parents, together.

"Dad said that once he fell into Mom's blue eyes, he couldn't get out again!" continued Abby, in a voice loud enough that her Mom could easily overhear.

On this point, however, Izumi didn't contradict. It was true, John had said those very words.

Just then, someone knocked on the front door of the Johanneses' home.

"I'll get it!" Abby called out, quickly going down the hall to the living room.

After a minute or two, she came back to the bedroom and excitedly gathered her fishing gear. The clouds had unexpectedly parted, giving everyone the perfect opportunity to go outside before it clouded over again.

"It was just my fishing buddies, Mom!" called out Abby. "Jake, we're going to do some fly fishing. Want to come?"

Immediately, he shrank back.

"Do you want me to stay?" she asked.

"No, that's all right," replied Jake. "Go with your friends."

"Okay," said Abby, "but you can stay and watch the fish for as long as you want. See ya later, Mom!" she shouted, running down the hallway.

When the front door slammed shut, the house was suddenly quiet. All Jake could hear were the gentle sound of the bubbles from the aquarium air pump.

Abby spent the Saturday morning with her buddies, fly casting along the shore of her parents' private property. Her friends were from church, and ranged in age from teenagers to old men. Even though Abby was the only woman there, they treated her as one of the guys, for she was-- almost.

"So, he's coming to church tomorrow?" asked Dr. Gregory, who was the local veterinarian.

"Yup," answered Abby, casting her line out a far distance from the shore.

"Say, that was a good one," remarked David, a young man about the same age as Jake. "Someday, I'll get a tape measure, and we'll record the distance of your longest cast."

"Does he fly fish?" continued Dr. Gregory.

"Nope," said Abby.

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