It was a cool August evening, golden hour. The sun was low, a slight breeze brought a bit of a chill, and we were fishing. Three friends and I had taken a few fishing rods and hiked a half mile through a field to get to the creek. Really, it wasn't much of a creek at all; it was where the field tiles all drained off. A large pipe — big enough to crawl in — constantly poured water into a small pool — tiling from all the fields. During the rainy season, it became a babbling brook, but today it was simply a pool at the base of the pipe, about forty feet across. The cutoff was steep, and it was easy enough to fall in.
Bringing the rods was my idea, and my friends weren't all that enthused. They fished for a few minutes before giving up. "There are no fish in this," they said, "it's too small." I argued that I had caught a fish before, and that it really was a lot of fun to try fishing for them. "There is no way you will ever catch anything." they said.
"I promise that there's fish here. I guarantee that you could catch something if you tried."
My friend said something that I did not anticipate, and wasn't sure if I was pleased or apprehensive to hear. "Nic, I will bet fifty bucks that you will not catch a fish."
I didn't have fifty dollars. I wasn't entirely sure I would catch one that evening, the fish might have been too small. We shook on it anyway.
I caught a fish. He threw back his head and groaned, laughed, rubbed his eyes. The other friend was laughing his head off. "You jinxed it, you jinxed it!"
"Yeah, I jinxed it," he said as he opened his wallet. Before giving me the money, he said "I'll only give you the money if you give me the fish."
It was not part of our deal, but I complied. I didn't really care. After I had given him the fish, it struck me that he might attempt to do something to the fish in order to get a negative reaction out of me. I'm okay with catching and eating fish, but I don't like the concept of a person putting the fish through non-necessary pain. When you catch them, you put them on ice, and their metabolism slows so much that I imagine they die without feeling much of anything. I decided to hike back out to the car, knowing that they would follow me shortly. If he would have abused the fish to get a reaction out of me, he might have just tossed it back in if I left.
I later found out that he put the fish on a metal stud that jutted out from the concrete platform that the pipe went through. The other friend showed me the video of it happening. Its mouth was around the stud, I'm not sure how far he jammed it on. I'm not sure if it's reminiscent of a giant nail, or just rebar that's sticking out. I've never observed it closely. To this day we don't know if the fish is still there. In my mind it likely isn't. It's still horrible to do that to something alive, but I don't know if it qualifies as cruelty. I'm not sure to what degree a fish possesses perceptual awareness. I think it's certainly indicative of a lack of empathy. But it's fine, some people are just like that.
Later that night, maybe half an hour later, we two out of the three of us (myself included) agreed to go to a hookah lounge, so the other guy tagged along. He drove, though. It was our first time, we were doing it just to mess around, maybe screw with people and get kicked out.
I can't remember the prices, but I think two people was just shy of thirty bucks. The third friend decided that he didn't want to participate in the hookah, and that he would only sit there and talk with us as we did it. Somehow, the friend that made the bet with me managed to haggle the guy at the lounge down to 20 bucks. It was a very nice hookah lounge. Like, incredibly nice. I don't know how in the world he even managed to haggle to begin with. I slapped a 20 on the counter — since I had made 50 bucks that day, it was my treat.
He hit it hard and got buzzed until he couldn't talk. The owner came out and glared at us from the bar. I laughed a lot. The other friend sat there awkwardly. "He can try it," the employee said, "he doesn't have to pay for it."
He took one hit and said "I don't like it." I personally thought it was magnificent. You could take it all the way in on empty lungs. I think I put all four coals on. Magnificent.
Before we left the other friend and I made him drink an entire bottle of cold water. I decided I liked being buzzed, so we walked down a block to a gas station and I spent the remaining 30 dollars on a reusable e-cigarrette (vape). This was back when they said it was harmless. I hit it hard for a couple of years but I quit once they said it's not actually harmless. I'll probably go to a hookah lounge again sometime though. I just don't want to go alone, and the friend that I went with is dabbling in harder drugs and no longer partakes in really any nicotine at all. It is what it is.
All in all, I would say the ordeal was a very interesting event. I enjoyed burning fifty dollars in a night. I'm sure he wished he hadn't jinxed it.