The riverbank gave way, allowing the rock to fall into the river. Seeing the rock about to fall in, the old fisherman tried to run around the worker so he could grab it. Conflict erupted as the worker shoved him back as the rock hit the water. The loud splash alerted the entire work crew to look over as the old fisherman fell over. The leader of the workers, or at least someone with authority, called the worker to come back.

Staring at the back of the retreating worker, the old fisherman got up. He had lost the battle when push came to shove. As for the rock, the part of the river it fell in was shallow, so it was still in the area instead of being swept away, allowing it to witness the continuation of this situation. Although it was a great view, it was a little too close for comfort. Especially when the fisherman walked up to the rock. Scratch what was said before about him possibly being preferable; he is forcing an innocent rock to get involved.

The rock was picked up by the old fisherman. This never ends well. Every time a human touches the rock, there was only two ways it could end. The human would drop the rock or would throw it. Neither ending was appealing. Unlike the two evils, there was a preferable option, at least. Being dropped is better than being thrown. Earlier, the rock had been dropped by the worker. That meant nothing. There was no correlation. Just because someone dropped it already doesn’t mean it can’t happen again. It was a 50/50 chance, right?

The fisherman glanced at the net in the river. At this point, it was all torn up at the bottom and was still salvageable, but the catch itself was lost. He felt powerless and his grip on the rock seemed to loosen. It seemed that the rock would be dropped or perhaps brought back to the youth as a memento. That’d be interesting and a scenery change would have been nice. Alas, laughing was heard in the direction of the work crew and the fisherman’s hands tightened around the rock. He lifted the rock up and threw the rock. No surprise there. Should’ve seen it coming.