It was just another day in the ocean. I was just swimming along my way, looking for
some little shrimpy things to eat. I
mean, every day was pretty much the same anyway. Swish my tail, gulp some water, and search
for little shrimpies to eat. I really
like shrimpies. They are really small,
which is perfect because I’m not exactly big.
Don’t get me wrong, I am a perfectly adequate size. I’m not a great white shark or orca or
humpback whale or dolphin or sun fish or…. Sorry I got distracted. I really like listing out all the amazing
things I’ve met over the years. Anyway, I’m not big, but I manage. The shrimpies taste really good, with that
little bit of a crunch that makes them just perfect. I’m getting sidetracked anyway.
Today was apparently destined to be a day unlike any
other. There I was, swimming around,
looking for shrimy shrimpies, when all of a sudden, something went shooting
past me. Now, I couldn’t really see it,
considering how fast it went swimming by, but it was definitely not something I
had ever seen before. It was really thin
and long and kind of shiny, but not like scales shiny. When it went past me, I was just closing in
on a bunch of shrimpies, but they scattered when this new fish thing went flashing
by.
Now, I’m always ready to meet somefish new, but this thing
was fast. I’m a fast swimmer, but it was
clearly a just a smidgen faster than I am.
However, another one went swimming by, within a bubble’s width of my
eye! These new fish needed to be careful, before they hit someone! Just as I was
beginning to consider trying to catch one of those two fish to tell them that
they and their friends needed to be careful since there were a few fish
swimming around, another one flashed by, this time hitting one of my friends!
It had killed Bob! He had a wife and kids and this weird fish had just killed
him! Someone needed to stop these fish!
The next flashy fish that went by was different. It had this stuff on it that made the water
hot. It was really weird and was
definitely not normal. Just as it went swimming toward the dark at the bottom
of the ocean, something else started rising up out of that dark place.
Now, some fish think that the bottom of the ocean is where
God lives, but I’ve never really prescribed to that faith. I don’t really think that there is a God, but
I’d also never seen anything come out of the dark at the bottom of the ocean.
Some giant, ungainly fish came rising up.
It was being pushed by some bubbles, which was good since its fins didn’t
look like they would do much good. Oh, it
did have a fishy like tail which would definitely help it swim, but it didn’t
look like it would get anywhere very fast.
That’s probably what the bubbles were for.
Anyway, it went up towards the light above me, where those
flashy fish had come from. I’ve never
been that close to the light, but this fish went right up there. After it went up there, I started to feel
this pressure, kind of like when the whales are talking to each other. They always talk so loud, but this fish was
talking even louder. I mean really, what
was this fish’s deal?! A little while later, it came back down and went back
into the deep. On the bright side, the flashy fishes stopped coming, so that
was good. On the downside, apparently everyone
else was blinded when that weird giant fish went by because they didn’t know
what I was talking about. How could they
miss that?!
No one ever believes me about anything. That might have been the god of the ocean and
these fish thought I was insane! The GOD of the OCEAN fishes!!! Whatever. They didn’t believe me when I told them I had
met a whale shark either, so that’s their problem.
Author’s Note:
I decided to rewrite the story of The Bridge. For some reason, my first thought upon
reading this story was “What would the fish think about these celestial arrows
being shot into the ocean?” In the original story, Rama shoots arrows into the
ocean to try to get the God of the Ocean to help him and the army cross the
ocean to get to Lanka. The God
eventually rises to the surface and tells Rama that he must build a bridge to
cross the ocean because he could not be ‘forded’.
Bibliography: Indian Myth and Legend by Donald Mackenzie (1913). PDE Ramayana.
Image Info: Herring. Source: Flickr
Oh my gosh this story is hilarious! I have never thought about the fishes' perspective of that event but it must have been quite traumatic for them to suddenly have the ocean floor lift up and have arrows rain down on them. I absolutely love your writing style as well! I could not stop laughing the whole time! My favorite part was when the main fish was the only one to witness the god.
ReplyDeleteThis was such a creative idea for a story! When you think of fish, you think of low-level brains, but your story was the complete opposite, which offered a fairy tale feel. I doubt Rama and his army even thought about how the fish would react to the celestial arrows, so this is a very unique perspective. The only part that could use more detail was the part about the arrows’ appearance. The arrows were described as “flashy fish” and as having “fish tails”, but it would have been interesting to hear even more description of what the arrows looked like. I understand that in your story they were zooming by so fast that it was difficult for the fish to see them closely. Another interesting take on the story would be if the fish knew that the arrows were not fish. That would create a lot of suspense. Overall, your fish perspective of “The Bridge” was creative and I especially loved the stream of consciousness at the beginning when the fish is describing the “shrimpies”.
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