A Fish with a Wish

A Fish With a Wish

By: Kaliyah Tomolonis

Dedicated to my sister ****,

I miss your company

Maple Leaf Writing Project

Brattleboro, Vermont

2017

Chapter 1 - The scrambled egg catastrophe

All I wanted to have was a life without boredom.

I am a beautiful Beta fish. I’m also a male, thought to be a female by everybody, even the vet. You might be wondering; why would a person take a fish to the vet? My owners are downright stupid. But anyway, more about me. Purple, red, and blue all streaming down my back. The only things in my tank were just blue and green rocks. And algae, algae, and more algae. It hadn’t been cleaned since the time the Curtis’s got it, three or four years ago. They got me two years after. They just had a tank to put rocks in, but then thought a more sensible purpose for it would be its intended use: a home for a sea creature. For me, Princess.

The Curtis’s were people (and pets) who didn’t care about me one bit. Nobody in the family. Not May, Bruce, or their three kids, Cody, Lilly, and Rick. Not their other pets either (which they took good care of, unlike me), like Munch-munch the ferret, Stormy the gray bunny, Spooky the black cat, Scary the other black cat (Spooky’s little sister), and Spot the Dalmatian dog.

I only got fed once a week - the Curtis’s were clueless about taking care of fish - so I mostly lived on algae. And when the Curtises did feed me, it was only four flakes of the nastiest, cheapest fish food ever. It tasted like kitty litter. Yes, I have tasted kitty litter, when Lilly poured it in my tank. Long story.

Anyways, in case you’re wondering, Cody was 14 years old, Lilly was six, and Rick was 11. They go to Newman Academy. As most kids do, they all hated school. Except for Lilly. But that’s because Newman Academy tries to make the younger grades have fun.

May’s job was a nurse. She liked her job a lot. Her dream job was being a doctor, but a nurse was good enough. On the other hand, her husband, Bruce, had a job as a test subject in a pepper spray factory. I’m sure you can imagine how fun that job would be. Not at all Bruce’s dream job (which was a video game designer), but he got paid real good money for it, so it was worth it.

“How was work today, sweetie?” May asked Bruce when he came home, kissing him on the cheek.

“Painful, as usual,” Bruce replied. “Got sprayed right in the eyes. It still stings terribly!”

“Hey dad, can we go play baseball?” Cody interrupted, emerging from his bedroom that was so messy with wires for his homework and other stuff besides games computer, gaming computer, phone, tablet, and his system for his flat screen TV.

“Not right now,” Bruce said quickly. “I… uh… have some work to do on the computer.” That was a lie. He didn’t have any computer work to do at all. He was fibbing because Cody always threw the ball super hard and the last time Bruce played baseball with him he got a very painful, very purple, very bulgy mark on his right knee. May said it looked like he needed “medical assistance” so she dialed 9-1-1. Her theory was proven to be correct when the doctor she works with, Dr. DeCuporn, said the kneecap got dislocated. Bruce had to have a very painful surgery and take disgusting pain relieving pills. He was traumatized. Maybe, just maybe, he thought, I’d be able to get away with playing my computer game, Bake the Bin.

“Suuuuuure you do,” Cody said, pouring a entire full 2 liter bottle of cream soda into his mouth and down his throat. His dad speed walked back into his room and logged into Bake the Bin.

I wonder if there is a place for a fish to live that’s not horribly, terribly boring to live, I I was thinking as I watched the oldest kid in the house called Cody pour some strange tannish brownish liquid known as cream soda down his throat. I sure hope so I thought as the same kid made a mysterious sound that I heard May Curtis say was called a burp.

“Don’t burp ever again!” May yelled at Cody. “It’s bad manners.”

“Psh. Like I can help it,” Cody replied.

“You're gonna be on St. Patrick’s naughty list!” May screamed. It was Friday, March 13, so St. Patrick’s day wasn’t too far off.

Cody couldn’t even reply to that statement, it was so dumb. Covering his mouth to keep himself from cracking up, he walked to his bedroom.

“You better hope Mr. Columbus will give you a lot of scrambled eggs on hanukkah day!” May yelled as Cody entered his bedroom.

Lilly came running down the steps.

“Were having scrambled eggs for dinner?” she asked.

She started wrestling Munch-munch. “YAY!!!”

And then she rolled into the bookshelf my tank was on.

“You klutz,” Rick said, not taking his eyes off of his computer while he was playing Bake the Bin (the game is multiplayer) with his dad.

The bookshelf my tank was on was wobbling violently now. It seemed like it would collapse any second.

“YAAAAY!!!!!!” Lilly screamed, running over to the kitchen table, Munch-munch close at her heels. “SCRAMBLED EGGS!!!!!”

And then there was a huge CRASH followed by a trickling of water.

Chapter 2 - The “Death” of Princess

All of the Curtis’s looked behind them and saw a mess of books, chunks of wood, shards of glass, and… water. And lying in a bed of glass was me. I was putting in so much effort just trying to take a successful breath and having no luck. I started becoming drowsier and drowsier and then I fell into the deepest, darkest slumber of my life.

The Curtis’s all crowded around the mess. My eyes were blank. I’m sure I didn’t look alive.

“Yay?” Lilly said, not looking as excited as before. Munch-munch had the same look on his face. “Mommy, is Princess feeling excited for scrambled eggs too?”

“I don’t think so,” May replied. “In fact, I don’t think Princess is feeling anything right now.”

Randomly, after a few seconds of chasing us, he disappeared. Then me and Wishfish heard a tiny, weepy voice yell “Help!”

There, down below them, they saw a shark with almost black looking blubber cornering a baby otter.

“Darkshark,” said Wishfish

We swooped down and picked up the otter and zoomed off. But not before Darkshark sunk a fang in the otter’s flipper. The fang came out of Darkshark’s mouth and stayed in Totterotter’s flipper.

Later, at the algae cave, the otter told us his name

“My name is Totterotter,” he said.

“Hi Totterotter. My name is Wishfish,” she pointed at me with a fin “and this is my friend Princess.”

“Hi,” I mumbled.

If you think that Totterotter is cute, you’re right. He has big, innocent, brown eyes and big whiskers. He’s also really tiny. He’s smaller than we were! I was born with a birth defect where I’m unusually large for my breed. And by large I mean HUGE. I’m about two feet wide and two feet long. The Curtis’s got a tank that’s meant for small turtles, big starfish, you know, stuff like that. I guess Wishfish was either born with the same defect as me or her breed is just really big. We’re twice as big as Totterotter!

Just then, I renoticed the big gash in Totterotter’s flipper. It was still bleeding! Wishfish must have noticed too, because she said “We should take care of that wound. I know what to use to clean it and bandage it up. It should be near here, unless stealseal is at it again.”

Chapter 4-The Stories

We went out of the cave (Algae Canal is what Wishfish called it) and found what we needed. We got the tooth out of Totterotter’s flipper, and then bandaged it, which was difficult because Darkshark tore a clean hole through it.

I was half expecting Darkshark or Barkshark or even both to come into the cave at any second, since sharks can smell blood, but for some reason that didn’t happen. It was cozy in the cave, though. It turned to night, and Wishfish told me that the algae in the cave was special and that it glowed when he sun went completely down. I didn’t believe her at first, but sure enough, when the last sliver of sun sunk completely below the horizon, a soft orange light emerged from Algae Canal. Then we told stories about our lives.

Wishfish told her story first. “I was born in the South Pacific. My parents died soon after they taught me and my 73 humongous siblings how to catch food, get away from predators, y’know, that kind of stuff.” Here her face turned into one that was pure depression.”Then, I wanted to explore. I wanted to do something! Not to just float around, frolicking, smiling and making kissy faces at every piece of seaweed I see.”

If you couldn’t tell already, I kinda have a sorta maybe crush on Wishfish. So this funny, if not sarcastic comment made me like her even more.

“So then I traveled here and two months after found then found li’l Princess here and voila! We have the present. The end.”

“Do I look ‘li’l’ to you?” I asked her.

She giggled. “Sorta kinda maybe a little bit no,” she said

Totterotter didn’t really have a story to tell because he apparently was born only three days before that tragedy. His parents died the 4 hours after his birth.

“AAAAAAAAAH!”

Me, Wishfish, and Totterotter heard a scream right outside the cave.

“NO!!! GET ME OUT OF IT! NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

We hurried out of our cozy canal and saw horror in front of us.

Chapter 5-That’s Where the Sharks Went!

Darkshark and Barkshark were trapped in a net, with a rope with a spike on it puncturing both of them. They were surrounded by crimson water and it was getting redder and redder by the second.

“They might have tried to kill us, but we can’t let them die like this,” Wishfish said. “Plus, they might not try to kill us if we keep them from getting killed!”

“Good point,” I said. “Let's go!”

We charged at the net, which seemed to be attached to a ship. We sprang out of the water and landed on the ship. We slammed into the guy controlling the net, which was at a dashboard. Geez, he was SO fat! Why is almost everybody in my life fat? Who knows. Anyways, he got so startled that he fell and landed on a button with his elbow.

The button read “detach net”.

We hopped along, feeling like we were trying to breathe so hard and having no luck. I felt myself blacking out.

Not again! I thought to myself, urging my body to hold on a few seconds longer…

As I was starting to topple over the edge of the railing, I saw a silvery shape lying on the deck below me.

Wishfish.

I yelled for Totterotter to help us

“Totterotter! Listen to me. Wishfish has passed out. Won’t be long until she reaches the next stage… death. We need to get her into water. NOW!”

“Okay,” said Totterotter nervously.

I started talking to wish fish. “Wishfish! Don’t die! I love you! Hold on a little longer!”

She woke up for a few seconds. “I… love y-you… too, P-Princess.” She passed out again. To make a long story short, we got Wishfish into the water and she lived to tell the tale. We also saved the sharks and convinced them not to kill anymore fish. They were some of our best friends from there on out.

Epilogue

The Curtis’s got fined $2,500 because animal abuse is a major crime where they live, even if it’s starving a fish.

Totterotter got a foster family to protect and love him until the end of time… me and Wishfish.

Wishfish got her wish: to have her own coral garden.

I got my TWO wishes: to have a life without boredom and (drumroll please) have Wishfish propose to me!!! In our wet world, we have females propose instead of the males.

And now, this makes the end of my fishy story, for now...