“He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish.”

Walter thought about this opening line from Hemingway’s book, “The Old Man and the Sea” and could relate to how Santiago must have been feeling. Like Hemingway’s protagonist, Walter was a fisherman, and like many who fished alone in a small boat, he had fallen upon hard times.

He couldn’t begin to calculate how many consecutive days he came back empty-handed. The commercial fishing boats, with their enormous nets, had scooped up most of the fish in these waters, leaving Walter little choice but to retire and, hat in hand, move in with his daughter and son-in-law.

Still, Walter came down to the pier each day. He’d sit there puffing away on his pipe, a sandwich, and some salty snacks packed along with a six-pack of Old Milwaukee in the cooler. He’d think about life on the sea and the sixty years he’d spent, day in and day out, fishing in these waters.

And he’d watch the few remaining small fishing boats go out in the morning with some hope for a good day and come back in the late afternoon with a measly catch, if any catch at all.

He knew them all by name and they would stop and chat with old Walter, reminiscing about the so-called good old days and the bountiful waters of the Gulf Stream. But Walter also knew that these remaining hardy old fishermen would soon be following in Walter’s footsteps and retiring. Although some, he thought, will work until they’ve drawn their last breath, having nowhere to go each day but out to sea.

Sometimes he thought that he should have done that.

This post was written for Kevin’s No Theme Thursday prompt. Kevin presents us with 20 AI-generated images and we can choose any one and write a post about the image.