Friday, June 6, 2008

A Piranah named Bob.... (my story for class)

Bob has had a very interesting life for a fish. He was born in pet store in Washington, and sold to a girl by the name of Amy. Bob went everywhere with Amy, not by choice of course, for he really had no say in the matter. Amy carried him in a plastic cup full of water. Bob found it very odd that Amy would carry him around in a cup of water, because Amy had an extreme case of hydrophobia. This was probably due to the fact that her mother had almost drowned the poor girl when she was only a baby. Amy’s mother was a drunk, and one day, when she was outside washing the laundry in the washbasin that sat in the middle of their trailer court, she saw that she had missed a very dirty one-sy and dunked it in the water without realizing that the shirt was still on her baby. Amy did survive, though not without serious damage. Since that tragic incident Amy has gone quite psycho. Every time she sees anyone with water she runs away screaming. She knocks peoples water glasses out of their hands because she thinks they are trying to drown themselves.
Yet when Amy saw Bob she fell in love with him. And although she was afraid of the water he lived in, she decided she could handle it, as long she kept him in a small glass of water, instead of one of those big fish tanks. So now, unfortunately for Bob, he lives in a small confined space, and must go everywhere with a psychotic girl. Not exactly the desired life for a fish, but it is what it is.
Amy also developed a fear of alcoholics since she was little, and this was a major part of her decision in which college she would attend. Amy heard that there was a religion that did not believe in drinking alcoholic substances, and so she checked it out and decided that BYU-I was the safest place for her to be. Bob was excited to go there, because he heard that they had an excellent animal science course.
One day in biology class, while Bob was enjoying the discussion on evolution, he was distracted with a vibration that was so forceful that it almost shook him right out of his water-cup. Looking around in desperation, he noticed that Amy was gripping the desk very hard, and that she was trembling. There was no earthquake after all. What Bob wondered though, why in the world was Amy freaking out like this?
Every time Biology class came around Amy would start to act weird again. And over the course of a few weeks, Bob was able to notice that it happened when a certain girl walked into the classroom. Why would this girl make Amy freak out the way she does? What’s so scary about her? She just looked like a normal human girl to Bob, but he was determined to find out more about her. So Bob started listening to the conversations around him in the halls, and he discovered that the girls name was Lorelei, which is also the name of a legendary water nymph of the Rhine who lured sailors to shipwreck on her rock by singing. Not only did this girl have the name of a water nymph, but she was also the captain of the swim team, and she also held a job as a lifeguard at the University’s swimming pool. That explained a lot. This was the queen of the world of water, the exact opposite of hydrophobic Amy.
After Bob’s discovery, he decided to pay closer attention to Amy’s actions towards Lorelei. Bob noticed that Amy went out of her way to make Lorelei’s life miserable, which he didn’t think was very nice of Amy, since Lorelei had never done anything wrong to her. But, alas, what could he do? After all he was only a fish.
One day Amy took an unexpected turn. Where was she going? Bob realized then, that Amy was headed for the swimming pool, which he thought was very strange, for usually she avoided such places like the plague. Unbeknownst to Bob, Amy had decided that she was going to end her misery once and for all. She couldn’t stand the idea of Lorelei, her enemy (although Lorelei is unaware of their rivalry), being in the only place where Amy has ever felt safe, BYU-I. So Amy went to the pool that day with the intention of telling Lorelei to leave Rexburg, never doubting that Lorelei would go.
Amy’s plan went awry. Amy had never been so close to such a large amount of water before in her life, and she started to hyperventilate. What was she thinking? How did she think she was going to handle being so close to all that water? Amy started to get dizzy and black spots were clouding her vision. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply, taking her mind off the water, she saw her target and pushed on. Lorelei was sitting up on some sort of high chair next to the pool. Amy had to concentrate real hard not to look at the water, and to keep her eyes on Lorelei. As Amy stepped up next to the lifeguard perch, a boy running past bumped into her, knocking her off of her feet… and into the pool. Bob was shocked by the sudden exposure to all of that chlorine. It was a bit disorienting, and a little difficult to breathe in, but he eventually got his bearings. Then he realized that Amy was in the water too, and she was spazzing out. Okay, Bob had to think, what was he going to do? How could he, a simple fish save Amy? Before he could even scream for help, Lorelei had jumped into the pool and had begun to drag Amy towards the edge. Towards safety. But Amy was back in a water-basin full of dirty laundry, and when Lorelei grabbed Amy she thought it was her drunken mother all over again. Amy scratched, kicked, and pulled. She wouldn’t be drowned again. She got a hold of Lorelei and pulled herself up, breaking the surface of the water. Amy, still lost in her past, was not aware that she was holding Lorelei under the water with a death-grip, and Lorelei was losing air fast. Bob had to do something. He swam as fast as he could and using his razor sharp teeth he bit Amy’s hand, she released Lorelei, and woke to the reality of her situation. Luckily she was close enough to the edge of the pool that she was able to grab the edge and pull herself out. Unfortunately, it was too late for Lorelei, her last breath escaped in a torrent of bubbles. It was a pitiful sight.
Amy nursing her sore hand on the edge of the pool didn’t even realize Lorelei’s plight. She was just shocked to realize that she had survived that ordeal, and was also shocked to realize that Bob was not a gold fish like she had always thought, but a piranha. And now she would never get to know her piranha friend, for he had been exposed to the chlorine too long. Amy gently scooped his little body out of the pool and wrapped him in her sweater. She would never buy another fish.

1 comment:

J. Martin said...

I'm going to print this out and read it. Tell you about it later!