“The Bass, The River, and Shelia Mant” The Bass, The River, and Shelia Mant written by Wetherell is a short story about a shy fourteen year old boy who has a huge crush on a seventeen year old girl named Sheila Mant. After spending most of the summer showing off every day in front of her he finally gains enough courage to ask her out. Shelia agrees and the boy decides to take her by canoe to a concert. While getting the canoe ready the boy drops his fishing pole into the canoe and drops the line in the river, forgetting to ever remove it when leaving. While paddling to the concert with Sheila she makes a comment about how fishing is dumb, and around this same time the boy realizes he has just snagged the biggest bass of his life, but pushes his pole behind him to hid it. He then has to decide weather he should reel in his biggest catch ever or forget about it in order to win his crush over. In the end, the boy decided to cut the line and head to the concert with Shelia. Later however, Shelia forgets all about the boy and rides home with someone she meets at the concert. The most problematic spot throughout the story is in the end, with the boy having to decide which to do, cut the line or go with the girl. I feel that most everyone has been though the thoughts and feelings of a crush over one person, or having to choose over two things they deeply care for. In the story I felt that the boy made the best decision with going with the girl, and with that learned a huge life lesson. When it came time for the boy to either let the fish go, or to walk to the concert with Sheila, I’m sure that so many thoughts were running through his mind. I believe though that if the boy had chosen the fish rather than Sheila her reaction would have still been the same. She would have most likely still walked up the concert and left with another boy. However, if the boy would have still done this he would always have regret and what if’s in the back of his mind. Although Shelia...