Page 20 of Cadenbury Town Does Halloween

The boat is stillat the drop-off point and we all embark. Titus makes Cassie sit on a middle seat well away from the edge of the boat, much to his disgust.

It doesn’t take us long to get back to the Quay. Adhan and I go to buy bait for our crab fishing adventure, while the others go into the shop to buy everything else we need.

I laugh as we meet up with them. It looks like they bought out the shop. They have a ton of buckets, nets, crab lines and deck chairs.

We walk along chatting and laughing as we find the ideal location. Well, when I say we, I mean the others as I have no idea where the best place would be.

Someone picks the perfect spot, chairs are set up and buckets and crab lines are handed out. The brothers tie the buckets to the lines and lower them into the water to fill the buckets up.

For some reason, I’m holding all the bags of bait. I hand them out as Adhan gets our line ready. I open the bag and offer it to Adhan.

He just grins at me. “This is your part, sweetheart.”

“What is?” I ask curiously.

“You get to put the bait on the hook,” he says, and quite loudly I might add.

The others all stop what they are doing and look my way, with various looks of amusement on their faces.

I look at the bait and then back to Adhan. “No.”

“Come on sweetheart, this is all part of the fun,” the love of my life says, grinning like a loon.

I lift the bag and give the bait a sniff. It stinks. I’mnotputting my hand in there. “No,” I say again.

“Come onErnie, you can do it,” Nix cackles out like he’s trying to channel Molly.

“You want me to put my hand into this smelly bag of bait, pull some out, and attach it to the hook? Have you gone completely mad?” I ask in horror.

“I can help you if you want,” Nora offers.

I smile at her. “I’ve got this, but thank you,” and with that, I use my magic to bait the hook.

“That’s cheating, sweetheart,” Adhan points out.

“I honestly can’t tell you how much I don’t actually care about that,” I reply. I mean seriously?

The others laugh and get back to baiting their lines. It looks like everyone has one except me and Emily. It’s as if our family knows us.

I sit down next to Emily, who is holding Connie, she hands me a baby wipe and I wipe my hands. Once done she hands Connie to me.

“Thanks,” I look at Connie. “Hello, princess. Look at your uncles all trying to outdo each other. Except for Uncle Cam who is helping your cousin. Can you believe that mean old Uncle Adhan wanted me to put my hand in a smelly bait bag?” I turn a smiling Connie around so she can see what’s happening.

“It would have been funny to see you do that,” Emily comments.

“For you maybe, not so much for me.”

“I’ve got one,” Sion practically shouts. “Someone grab a net.”

Cassie picks it up and leans over the railing putting the net under the crab line as Sion pulls it up. Everyone starts chanting Sion’s name. “Got it.”

A cheer goes up from pretty much all of us, except Emily and I cheer quietly.

“Yay, Sion,” Nora shouts running over and having a look.

Cassie squats down and turns the net upside down so the crab falls into the bucket. “First one to Sion.”

“Come on Cam, we need to get one now,” Nora says, going back to his side.