Prologue

When the recession hit, the country went into shock and people lost their jobs. Paul was one of them. The company he worked for laid him off on a Friday. On Saturday he spent most of the day drinking. His wife thought it amusing at first. He explained to her that he'd received a decent severance package and that he would probably go back to work for his previous employer sooner than later. She accepted that and allowed him this moment of self pity. She also enjoyed the times when he'd had too much to drink as he made a fool of himself and it gave her ammunition to use against him during their next argument.

On Sunday Paul made his plans for the week or at least he thought about it. On Monday he would register to go back to school and then find something, anything, to do for the rest of the week to take his mind off the layoff. At first he he couldn't come up with any decent ideas beyond drinking more and playing video games. There were a number of movies he needed to catch up on, books to read, even writing he could be doing. But none of it seemed that interesting. So Paul decided to do something that he normally wouldn't do. He decided to go fishing. Deep sea fishing.