Little Lord FIsh

I first met Geo in the Fall of my last year of high school, when the promise of the future is guaranteed. I was jogging by the retention pond and he was fishing for treasure in it, using a net hauling garbage out of the water with intense professionality. I passed by him over a bridge when "STRACK!" He had hurled his net and impending trash out in front of me.

My first thought was that he was going to ask me for money. I had been warned about vagrants in this park by my parents and teachers at the high school. I learned later that he was only curious about me and doing an experiment. Experimenting on me. Experiments on the bridge.

"Hey, stop running for a sec. What do you think is in this mud?" I didn't reply right away, only looked at him like a bewildered deer. After all, he looked like he didn't live in a home.

"I don't think there's anything but cans of Hormel chili, maybe even a few diseases in there," I replied. He looked up to the gray sky and belted out a laugh.

"What's your name?" He resumed.

"Uhh, Sam."

"What do you do, Sam?"

"I'm going to college next year, and then maybe after that, law school," I told him, a bit too confident I think, looking back, at what the future held with this budding friendship.

"Law school? I know about laws. I know that if you fish long enough in this pond, you're likely to cash in on something BIG," He reflected as he longingly looked into the swamp of garbage he had yet to sort out. He held his hand out.

"Geo Sandikis," he said.

"Sam Anderson," I replied, without shaking his hand.

"You're hands are muddy," I told him. He laughed again to the stars and we became friends.

Most days I exercised by the retention pond I seemed to see my friend Geo Sandikis throwing his net out over the bridge, next to a pile of shit. I had left and gone to Northeastern for school but always saw him out when I came back home to holiday. Once on a summer's day I saw him using a fishing pole. I jogged up and stopped beside him. I was kind of lonely of late and screwing up on my exams.

"Hello Geo," I said.

"Sam! How's school? Are you ready yet for law?" Not really wanting to spoil the moment, I lied and told him everything was great.

"Great!" He exclaimed. "Are you wondering what I've found in this beautiful puddle?! I found a gold watch, and a silver necklace with a cross pendant on one end! They're both rusty of course, but I'll keep them with me forever and ever, and ever!" At this last exclamation he jumped up and clicked his heels like a raving lunatic, his rubber boots splattering black sludge everywhere.

"That's good," I said. "I don't think you'll ever make a living on selling the things you find in there."

"That's why I'm keeping them! Life is about KEEPING-on living, not MAKING a living. Sam, you worry me!" He then proceeded to demonstrate something He took off his hat. Pointing to it with his other hand he asked,

"Sam, if this wasn't covered slime, but a brand new Louis Vuitton hat, would it turn me into a grasshopper?"

"No," I responded. He continued: "A rhinoceros wearing a Louis Vuitton hat," He said with pause and a wink,

"Is still a rhinoceros."

Life went on and got busy. Years passed. I got into Northern Illinois law school, which was close to my childhood home, near the retention pond.

There came a time during my BAR exam days, where my jogs didn't lead me to Geo. It was a time fraught with focus and the desire to concentrate and finally become a licensed lawyer. When Geo disappeared there was nothing and no signal. I searched for him all over the park. I didn't see him with his bags of trash and treasures anywhere. I even asked about him at the homeless shelter. All went to no conclusion. Thinking back to those days I HAVE concluded that Geo had transcended, somewhere new, traveling on to a new place.

The morning flew in during the spring after a warm, fragrant July night. I had my coffee, same as usual. Birds sang in key. Flowers, with red and white petals on the same stem stunned me as I closed the door behind me. I jogged. There were animals everywhere, deer, coyotes, hummingbirds and bright red cardinals all enjoying something collectively, as I neared the retention pond bridge, where I always met with Geo.

Plants had bloomed everywhere near the bridge. The pond had metamorphed into a powerful blue-green fast flowing ecosystem. In the water there were even fish. Multicolored rainbow fish, they splish-splashed against the swim-streams.

Out at the farthest edge of the park, traditional Flamenco music flowed out from a home's open kitchen window. The volume turned up in unison with a little yellow Koi fish, which jumped out of the water, popping back in with the guitar and clapping, a nose-dive back in. It all exhilarated me. This Koi fish fought against the stream, and sometimes appeared to not be moving at all. I learned by this experience that his destination was not as important as the bravery of his attempt to swim against the stream, against all odds. In the Chinese folk tale, he would soon become a Samurai. I was reminded that wherever Geo Sandikis was now, I hoped he too was a Samurai warrior.

I breathed in the splendor out on that bridge. By trash fishing on this pond his whole life, Geo had shown me something akin to a Mobius Strip of reality: Fishing out all the mud and garbage out of this pond had resulted in a wildly new beautiful creation. Geo Sandikis and all of humanity, cashed-in on something BIG.