“Come on, Dad, just open it,” Molly squeaked. She couldn’t wait for him to open the Father’s Day present she made him.

    “I’m trying, but you wrapped it too good, Molly,” Dad teased.

    When he finally got it open, Molly dove right in to show him everything. “See it’s a coupon book for hugs, watering the garden, and the best one--a buddy for the day.”

    Dad flipped through the coupon book for a moment. He sipped his coffee pretending not to notice Molly’s watching eyes. “I think this one’s perfect for today,” he said, then handed her the buddy coupon with a smile.

He wouldn’t tell her where they were going, even though she had asked several times.

“You’ll see,” is all he would say.

When they pulled up to her dad’s favorite fishing spot, Molly wrinkled her noise. She didn’t like fishing. She never catches anything, and the worms are too squirmy to hold on to. 

Molly’s dad walked ahead on the path to push the weeds out of the way. She tried keeping up, but the ground was soggy. She sank in deeper and deeper with every step.

“Oh, no!” Molly cried, when the mud pulled off her shoe.

 “We can wash them in the water,” Dad said.

Molly nodded and continued to follow him. She watched the ground trying not to step on anything with her shoeless foot, and didn’t see him pull back a tree branch.

“Ouch!” she cried, when it sprang back and hit her leg.

“Sorry, Molly,” Dad said.

“It’s okay,” she said, rubbing her leg. Molly didn’t want him to feel bad. He didn’t mean to.

When they finally made it to the water, her dad handed her a fishing pole and the bucket of worms. Molly started putting a worm on her hook, but missed and got her finger instead.

“That’s it!” She cried, and threw the fishing pole on the ground. Fishing just wasn’t for her.

Molly sat digging in the sand until her dad started packing up the fishing gear. He looked sad, and that made her feel bad for the way she was acting. She didn’t want to ruin his Father’s Day, so she picked up her fishing pole and smiled at him.

Molly barely got her line in the water when she got a bite. She was so excited. This was her first fish ever, and it was fighting. Molly struggled to hold onto her pole. The fish pulled and splashed around. She thought it had to be big from all the trouble it was giving her, but was surprised when she got it to shore.

    “Nice walleye,” Dad said.

“It’s a baby,” Molly said laughing.

“We’ll tell Mom it was too big to carry home,” Dad teased, and put the fish back in the water. Molly laughed at the thought of a fish that big.

 The two of them joked about different stories they could tell her mom, and soon it was time to leave. To Molly’s surprise, she didn’t want to leave. She was having fun—even if it was fishing.