"Not happening. Not now, not ever. Anything but that."
"Anything? That gives me a whole lot of ideas." He wiggled his eyebrows at her.
"I take that back. I'll do the dishes tonight." Melanie was quick to change her tune. It was the first time he had made any kind of a suggestive comment, and it made her uncomfortable.
"No worries. I just caught my dinner. You're off the hook." He quickly landed his fish and dealt with it. "By the way, we're having a new fishing lesson today. We're making smoked fish this time, so we'll do two for dinner and catch two more, one each, for our larders."
"So we just need two more. Funny. I was under the impression that fishing required hours and hours of just sitting in a boat, waiting for the fish to bite."
"Not here. Because this is a private lake, it doesn't get fished out."
As they continued fishing, they discovered that the little cloud had again disappeared and the sky was once more clear blue. "Okay, Russ. Next lesson." Melanie knew this one was harder to believe but figured they should try it anyway. "We're going to make a little cloud appear this time. If you look beyond the blue in the sky, you'll see a slight hint of white. Just imagine that it's cotton wool and pull a little bit of it towards you. We'll put one near where the other one was. Just pretend it's up there hiding and we're going to coax it out."
Again they closed their eyes, imagined the little cloud coming back, and when they looked again, it had just begun to form.
"Melanie, you have no idea how impressed I am! If you had tried this before I read the book on Huna practices, I would have thought you were a total nut case. But if that's true, I guess I'm one as well. I can't wait to see what else you have up your sleeve."
"The tricky part about this is belief. If you try and demonstrate it to a total skeptic, it just won't work because their doubt will prevent it - unless you have a group of really powerful believers who can over-ride the doubts." She again began reeling in her line. "Got another one! Grab the net."
"No can do. I've got one too." Russ had killed the motor and was reeling his line in as well. "Okay. We'll do this another way. When you get the fish close to the boat, lift him up out of the water and swing him in." As he spoke, Russ was carrying out the maneuver with his fish. Melanie did likewise, and managed to keep the lines from tangling..