A Fish Tale

A Fish Tale



“Why can’t I go first?” I batted my eyelashes at Tony hoping he would acquiesce.

He smiled at me, that charming gorgeous smile, took both my hands in both of his, and looked deep into my eyes, “Jessie, I love you but no!”

“Jerk!”

He laughed and went to the edge of the boat, pulled his goggles over his brown eyes, then fell off the side.

Tony was my boyfriend we’d been dating for a little over six months, we met at my job, I was a barista, or as Tony likes to call me a caffeine pusher. This obnoxious man comes to the counter asking for more foam in his latte, I had been out with my girlfriends the night before and I’m not ashamed to admit, I had a hangover. To top it off my blonde hair was pulled back in a ponytail cause it wouldn’t do anything that I wanted that morning, I wasn’t wearing any make-up, and I’m sure my eyes were puffy. This guy was the proverbial straw, I took his drink and poured it down his pants, screaming out that I quit, then as I walked out the door I knocked over a man getting ready to come in, “Jesus! Watch where you’re going!”

“Me! What about you?”

I know it’s cliché but once I looked into his eyes I was hooked. We’ve been together ever since, but this was our first vacation together. Sure it’s not Paris, Rome, or even Hawaii, but we were scuba diving in the Pacific Ocean, it’s kind of romantic. I came out of my reverie as the cord connecting Tony to the boat became taut, then it went slack then taut. I laughed, “You can’t go any further down Tony.”

Then the rope began to jerk, wildly around, my heart started to beat fast, I ran over and put my rebreather, and goggles on took a deep breath grabbed Tony’s rope, then I went over the side. It took me a moment to adjust; I kept my hands on Tony’s rope going hand over hand as fast as I could. Something hit my arm and it stung for a moment, I looked and a fish had run right into my arm, then I felt a sting on my left leg, my stomach and my chest. Thousands of fish were coming straight toward me; I stopped and held onto the rope as tight as I could, as fish kept pounding into me.

After a minute the path had cleared again, I looked behind me to see all the fish swimming away as fast as they could go. I started back hand over hand, it was getting darker as I got deeper, I turned on my light, but even with it I could only see a few feet in front of me. All of a sudden I saw red all around me, my arms became weak as my breathing became erratic, I almost let go of the rope, it was blood. I started pulling on the rope trying to pull Tony with me, praying to God that he was okay, then I saw his limp body floating just a foot in front of me.

There was something clamping onto his neck, at first I thought it was part of his suit, it must have been five feet long, it was dark brown or maybe black, I couldn’t tell in the darkness. It seemed to know I was there it detached from Tony’s neck, and looked at me with cold black eyes; it could have been smiling as it opened its mouth revealing sharp needle like teeth, as it darted toward me I let go of the rope dropping downward just out of its reach. I swam to Tony but I could see blood pouring out of the wound in his neck, underneath the goggles I could see his eyes open and glazed over. He was clutching something in his hand; I forced his fingers open and took it. That’s when I felt the fish’s tail wrap around me like an eel, pulling me downward, I screamed, my rebreather fell out of my mouth and water filled my lungs. I tried to pull away as my lungs burned for air; finally I managed to kick my feet loose, and swam toward the surface. As I broke the surface the fish managed to wrap around my stomach and pull me back down, its body crushed me forcing me to expel what air I had managed to ingest. As it held me there we were face to face its tongue darted out of its mouth and I could see the teeth on it before it licked me cutting my cheek open. I could feel my body losing strength everything was becoming cloudy. No I couldn’t let this be the way it ended, I took all the strength I could muster, grabbed its head and shoved my thumbs into the fish’s eyes, I swear I heard it scream. It immediately let go of my body and I was able to pull myself back up onto the boat.

I laid on the boat, until I was able to breathe normal again. Then I stood and walked to the radio, but before I could call the Coast Guard I remembered the thing that Tony had been clutching onto, it was still in my hand. I opened my hand to see a diamond engagement ring; I lost all my strength, fell to my knees and began to cry.