Halibut For Lunch

HALIBUT FOR LUNCH

Had lunch today with some business clients at Water Street Oyster Bar. They had fresh halibut on the board, the waitress said they had been flying it in fresh twice a month and this had just arrived yesterday. I dearly love fresh halibut, just barely done through, with a hint of lemon, salt and pepper.

As we were eating my mind wandered (like it always does when I have halibut, I need to just eat it at home) back to a fishing trip I took with some of my friends out of Homer Alaska in the late seventies. We had had an exceptional trip and must have had 500 or 600 lbs. of halibut each.

While we were standing around watching the charter company people filet and package our fish a gaunt young woman dressed in what appeared to be homespun or knit clothes with all kinds of colorful patterns was watching us. She had on leather homemade booties that laced up the sides and a knit skull hat that covered her ears. She had three little girls with her. Two appeared to be 11 to 13 years old and the littlest one might have been six. They were all dressed in the same kind of clothes, just different colors and patterns.

The woman carefully eased up to within about 20 feet of the cleaning tables and said something to the workers in a foreign language. One of the guys yelled at her and she jumped back and started to retreat back toward her children.

When I asked what was she was speaking. They said she was Russian, native to Alaska and there was a community of them up the inlet. I asked what she wanted and why had the man been so rude to her and they said they were beggars and were always hanging around bothering their customers. I then asked what the woman had said. They said she wanted the bones and heads from our fish that they were cleaning. I just choked up looking at my friends, tears welling up in our eyes at the same time. I could hardly speak, but I did call to them and signaled them to come here.

I walked down the slope and remembered I had a large package of gum like I always carry. I took it out of my pocket and offered them a piece then I gave the whole pack to them. I turned around and told the workers to tell them that they could have all the filets they could carry. Then I noticed another woman with a small child further down the way and I signaled her to come here also and had them tell her the same thing.

I have never before seen such gratitude and happiness in someone’s eyes as those people had. Then they said something to the worker and he said they wanted to know if I was the boss or king, the word is the same translation he said. I told them where I live I am boss at my company but no one is king in America or Texas.

They gathered up all the fish that they could carry and we watched as they made their way down the inlet’s beach and disappeared. We all went up to the restaurant for supper and were filling up on all the Dungeness crabs we could hold.

I looked up when I heard a commotion and here came the four children of the women we had given the fish to. The restaurant people were trying to stop them but they kept on coming and gave me the most beautiful bouquet of Alaska wild flowers. I don’t know what they all were named, but I kept some and pressed them in a book I have somewhere. Later after supper we all discussed how good we felt about our little deal that day. Needless to say, I had to blame today’s lunch tears on allergies. I just can’t eat halibut out in public. Sometimes I'm such a sissy.

Story ID:	1748
Written by:	Mark Crider (bio, link, contact, other stories)
Organization:	Corpus Christi Coating & Machine Inc.
Story type:	Story
Location:	Homer Alaska U.S.A.
Year:	1978