Rubber Fish
My friend and I were sitting on our beach chairs while watching our girls playing in the surf on that summer morning. About 50 yards from us, a man— maybe in his late 50s—was fishing with big poles(鱼竿).
After running for a while, the girls reached him and watched him. He smiled at them. They ran back to us—all except my three-year-old Alice. Instead, she sat down next to the man.
"Alice! Come here! Play with your friends!" I said, very worried that my speeches about not talking to strangers weren't working. Hearing me, Alice ran over to me. Then she looked me in the eye, "I want to be with the man." She ran back, sat down next to him again, and started digging.
Every few seconds I watched back to Alice to make sure she was safe. Just a man fishing. A little girl sitting.
In the second, Alice had started talking. Her mouth was moving. She was probably telling the man where we lived and how her father was away on business and how her mother sometimes let her ride bikes with her brother in the driveway alone. He nodded, then laughed.
A few seconds later, she ran back to us, waving something very shiny and slimy. "Look, Mommy! A toy fish!" It was a yellow rubber toy fish, which must have been what he was using for bait(鱼饵). And he'd given it to Alice. The three other girls all reached for the fish. Alice looked at me for help, then at the man, then back to me.
"My friend gave me that fish!" She said. Tears were fast falling. Just as I didn't know how to solve the problem, suddenly, there he was: the man, standing right next to us. He was holding three more rubber fish. He handed them to each of the girls." Thank you," the girls said, with their face shining like the sun. There is evil(罪恶）...but there is also the lesson for mothers to learn that only three-year-old could teach them. The man waved at us and walked back to his poles.
