MAGNET FISHING

 

To reach the apartments, I had to walk up the hilly road.  A woman was screaming, but she had gone inside one of the apartments, so there was only a small assortment of older black women with their children.  They were looking down into the creek where the body was floating.

“Has anyone called 911?” I asked.  I stood there with them in the hot Florida sun.  I was wearing my usual suit, white shirt, and tie.  “Oh yeah, they’s coming.” One replied to me.

I went to the trunk of my car, where I kept my rod and reel.  I assembled the poles of the rod and casted the line toward the body.  It took two tries before I snagged some cloth on the body and slowly pulled the floating body towards us on the shore.  The water put up some mild resistance, leaving ripples behind the corpse.

Two police cars arrived with their blue lights flashing.  A policeman exited the passenger side of one of the vehicles.  He looked over the creek bank, where I was standing on a lower sandy level next to the water.

He looked at me standing there with my fishing rod, the floating body gently rocking back and forth against the bank.  “We were trying to decide who would be the one to wade out in the creek,” “Thanks,” he said.  “It looks pretty fresh to me.  Probably hasn’t been in the water more than overnight.” 

 

In Florida, the natives engage in sports not seen in the rest of the United States.  One pasttime is magnet fishing.

Magnet fishing involves a ten-foot rope, some sturdy gloves, and a magnet with a thousand-pound pull.  The magnet is found in the Florida junkyards that come from Chevy Bolts or Tesla Model 3’s.

The sport takes place at old creeks, boat launches, and public fishing piers.  The heavy magnet is tied to the rope, and by using the weight of the magnet at the end of the rope, it is spun around several times then tossed out into the water.

The fisherman expects to find pocket knives, sunglasses, nails, boat straps, and sometimes, a piece of jewelry like a cheap bracelet. Cutlery such as spoons, forks, and butter knives often appear.  The internet is full of videos of magnet fishermen pulling in safes full of cash or gold bars.  Rarely a gun or rifle might be discovered and turned over to the police.  I have never seen this.

 

On a fateful day in Mandarin, the rain had cleared, and I stood next to the sign that said, “No feeding the alligators.”

I spent several minutes slinging the heavy metal out into the pond, only to drag it back to shore to clean the abundant algae off the magnet and rope.

On my final toss, I felt the magnet quickly attach with a snap under the murky water.  I wrapped the rope several times around my hand and braced my feet.  I pulled slowly but steadily toward me.  I could feel a resistant pull against me.

A large blob broke the surface of the water.   The magnet was attached to the belt buckle of a large cowboy buckle.  The buckle was around the body of a partially eaten human with traces of long blond hair.  The bottom half of the woman was still in the mouth of a large alligator.

I decided that I would try to rip the magnet away from the buckle since the alligator had a firm grip on the lower half.  I pulled several times with a snapping motion until the entire belt melted away from the skeleton.  Once I got the magnet and belt to the shore, I placed one foot on the belt and retrieved my magnet.

I was soaked with sweat, my legs and body shaking.  The alligator and female body had disappeared beneath the brackish water. 

I looked around for possible observers, but there were none.  I called 911, indicating that there may be someone swimming the pond.

I threw the magnet, rope, and gloves into my trunk and went home.