To family I have been telling your stories only slightly fictionalized for many years and have been blessed to know and learn from all of you
1 A FOGGY DAY THIS IS A BASEBALL STORY but it seems when I remember it to have started the day Mr Entwhistle arrived Most sports stories begin with a game or a race but this one is different It starts with a foggy morning Susan and I were sitting on the dock dangling our feet in the water We heard a rowboat looked at each other and giggled Susan and I had listened to thousands of fishermen row hundreds of dinghies from their anchored boats to our dock at New Auckland British Columbia We knew the rhythmic splash that oars make when they are working together That was not the sound we heard We couldn’t see the rowboat or who was trying to guide it to our village It was too foggy Hello called out a man’s voice Did I hear somebody Over here yelled Susan
Oh thank the Lord above said the man calmly Are you on a boat We’re on a dock I yelled A dock Land The man in the boat stopped rowing and let his dinghy glide forward He began to laugh Land he said again I could see the bow of the dinghy now and I could see the misty shape of a man sitting in the middle The dinghy was drifting closer to us The rower had swiveled around and was facing us Look I whispered to Susan pointing Doesn’t that man look like Sherlock Holmes said Susan slowly Exactly my dear Susan I replied but Susan didn’t laugh The man in the rowboat was wearing the kind of hat that Sherlock Holmes wears a hat that looks like a baseball cap with two front ends and flaps that usually tie on the top It was a damp cool morning and the flaps were pulled down over his ears The rowboat glided to a stop gently bumping into the dock I leaned over grabbed the bowline and tied the
