We lived in a small lake house with my grandparents. After April each

year, when fishing season opened, activity around the property picked up

considerably. My grandparents had settled on the lake and built a

business there, they rented row boats, sold bait, and operated a small

snack shop.

My grandmother managed the day-to-day operations of the boat rental

business. When customers arrived, she would pull out a notebook and

check them in, recording their names, addresses and license plate

numbers.

I watched her slip thirteen-night crawlers to customers instead of

twelve. “These people will come back,” she would tell me. At that young

age, I didn’t yet understand how one extra piece of bait could turn a

customer into a repeat visitor.