BETWEEN THE FISH

“A shark!” Kyle called, and Polly squealed as she flailed around with her floaties. 

“Over there! Over there!” , he continued, and pointed to an invisible point below them, moving it closer and closer to Polly. As far as lies told by older brothers, this one was not uniquely cruel. 

“Stop it!” she began to cry, as sea water went up her nose, and Kyle knew he went too far. 

“Hey, hey no, it’s okay. There isn’t a shark. See, no shark, there aren’t any sharks this shallow in the water. It’s okay Polly, it’s all okay…” and he tried to help her, but she was still upset at him. “You lied!”, her face got red and swollen, and Kyle knew that if she went to their parents looking all upset like this, he would be in a world of trouble. 

“I didn’t lie- I was just um, mistaken. I saw, well, um, a really big fish almost touching your foot and-” Kyle paused, realizing that the idea of a giant fish- even a non-shark one- would freak her out, and tried to save himself- “but then I saw it was a mermaid! Um, a purple, bluish, mermaid, and I freaked out!”

Polly squinted her eyes at him. “You didn’t see a mermaid…” she said in disbelief. But Kyle, an experienced ten years old brother, sensed the strained hope behind Polly’s skepticism and knew to pull at it. 

“I just like, saw her for a second. It was like, so fast, I freaked out! And I think she was like, looking at you, like maybe she wanted to tell you something?”, Polly’s eyes filled with wonder at the prospect of being chosen by a mermaid, and Kyle knew he was able to circumvent a meltdown and a parental scolding like an absolute legend. 

“Where is she now? Mermaid! Mermaid!” Polly stuck her face beith the water, and Kyle had to remind her to put on her goggles so she doesn’t hurt her eyes. 

“Maybe, we should just keep our eyes peeled out for any fish ladies that pass by?”, Kyle tried, now hoping that after a few minutes of nothing, Polly will forget about the mermaid completely and they can try to play some other game. 

“Fish lady…” Polly scanned the water as Kyle pretended to look. “Maybe we should ask that octopus woman over there?” 

“What? Like Ursula?” Laughing, Kyle turned around to see the make-believe creature, only to see a real like, adult women, with eight human limbs, casually swimming behind him. 

‘What?’ Kyle froze.  

Polly waved at her. “Hello, Octopus lady-” Kyle wanted to scream. Why was his sister reacting this way?! Why is she saying anything?! “Have you seen the mermaid that had just passed here? She was um, purple, and blue?” 

Kyle suddenly realized how far they were from the shore. When did they get so far? Did the tide move them? 

The octopus lady smiled, “I haven’t seen a mermaid pass by here, but if you are looking for one, you should try diving down. Mermaids tend to prefer parts of the sea that are dark.” 

“Yeah, well I think we need to get back or mom and dad would get angry-” Kyle tried to cut in, getting in between the two.  

“But it’s not fair! I didn’t even get to see the mermaid and she was just here-” Kyle pulled Polly away and began pedaling towards the shore. He watched the women swim away, and realized that she was a phenomenal swimmer, probably because she had eight limbs. 

Kyle, on the other hand, was only a good swimmer for a ten years old. Thankfully, he could hold onto Polly and her floaties as he kicked and doggie peddled to the shore, but the tide was strong, and it didn’t seem like they were getting any closer. Polly, for her part, began splashing water around a little to try and help. 

“Polly, stop it! You’re just making it harder! You’re splashing at me!”, Kyle said, tired and running out of breath. His goggles were getting all foggy and weird, and his arms were beginning to weaken and burn. 

“No I’m not! I’m helping!” she kept splashing, accidentally splashing him in the face. 

Kyle noticed the eight limbed women passing by again, nearly finishing another round, easily swimming against the tide with her eight arms and legs. “Are you sure you don’t need help?”, she asked. 

Kyle did not trust the creature before him. But then he thought about the time he and his friends watched a show called “Dumbest ways to die”, that mentioned, off hand, that drowning is by far one of the most painful ways to go, and changed his mind. 

“Yes! Please!” his head kept falling under. “Please help us get back to shore!” 

The women held onto Kyle’s shoulder, and Polly’s arm- and dove deep, deep under. 

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Polly slipped from the women’s grasp, her floaties keeping at the surface, but Kyle was taken under. The women swam so fast, moving water to the side like a dolphin, and Kyle was stuck to her side, unable to let go. Thank god he had his goggles on. 

Before he knew it the sky blue had turned a darker shade, and the clear blue sea had turned strange. “Let go of me! Let go!” he tried to call, but all that came out were bubbles, because they were under the sea. 

Then, he saw the giant shape of it. He thought it was just a dark path, a discoloration at the bottom of the sea, and then, he realized it was moving. It was not a shark. 

The woman moved to the side, as if trying to maneuver around the colossal fish, but accidentally touched its side, causing it to thrash and turn, and she got thrown to the side as Kyle finally separated from her, the force of it pushing him further down. 

He felt something rough touching his skin. Corals. Corals that for some reason, looked like people. Had faces. Petrified stone faces. He watched the last of his air escape his lips and move up, the bubbles reflective and white, and then the darkness at the edge of his eyes closed in. 

Up above, Polly was still floating by herself. Large swells of the sea bobbed her up and down, as the tides sent her further from shore. 

###

When Kyle came back, he was in front of the giant fish’s eyes. A glass lamp, man made, hung from his forehead like a deep sea monster from a fairytale. It convulsed, and its movement could cause earthquakes, but Kyle was close enough to see its pain. 

“How am I breathing?”, he kind of said, but he was still under water, so his voice did not carry. 

He realized it must’ve been something in the sea creature’s light. 

He moved closer to it, and the monster opened its enormous fish mouth, and revealed a whole world inside. Between its giant teeth, petrified corals with faces, some smiling, some scared, some alive and moving, and others white as bone. He saw shadows of sea creatures that have been freed of their bodies. Gelatinous masses with eyes, somewhere between slug and squid. Spinning urchins, dancing sea worms, and puffer fish that are just puffer fish, which is still pretty weird. No mermaids though. 

And one giant creature, a house with crab legs (think Baba Yaga but make it crabs), walking to the edge of the fish’s long tongue. And out came an old woman, who seemed to be made mostly of seaweed, and smiled at him. 

The eight-limbed lady appeared again by Kyle’s side, and said “Here, I have brought you to our shore.” 

Keyle did not see land or sand, or his parents, or anything he had been hoping to see. “But this isn’t the beach! We’re still at sea!” This time, his voice did carry, and even echo between walls of the fish’s mouth. He realized that something was slowly pulling you in, like the tide had earlier, but this time, he recognized it, and kept a safe distance from it. 

The sea witch responded “this is our shore. The point of separation and connection between your sea and our land.” She explained. “Normally, our ‘shore’ moves at the very bottom of the sea, far and across, never stopping, balancing the weight of your worlds and ours. When it stops moving, bad things happen. Earthquakes and droughts. As you can see, our fish world is in terrible pain, trying to hold back its mighty sneeze. I implore you, please, hurry into the fish’s mouth. You will be safe inside, safe from the sneeze!” Kyle looked at the fish, and truly, it seemed like it was in pain, moving and turning, trying to stop itself from a tremendous sneeze. 

“What will happen if it sneezes?” Kyle asked. 

“Earthquakes. Tsunami. What your kind might call ‘the big one’, which  nobody will survive.” 

Kyle suddenly remembered polly, still alone at the surface. His parents, probably worried sick, looking for them back at the beach. What would happen to them if the fish sneezed? 

“Hurry!” the witch called, and the lady with eight limbs swam into the fish’s mouth. 

“No! He can’t sneeze here, my sister is right above us!”, he called. “He has to move away!” 

The witch shook her head. “He can’t move! He had been ensnared by some kind of magic!” she pointed to an old fish net, giant, attached to the stone ground of the sea. “The bravest of our kind tried again and again to move him, but the moment they touch a metal object of the human world, they themselves turn into a part of your world (shout out little mermaid), just dead coral and stone!”  Kyle looked down, and indeed, the faces he had seen earlier appeared to be justified members of their world who have been claimed by the ocean floor. “Our kind cannot touch this!” 

Kyle swam to the net, and saw the fish’s form straining against it, its colossal form trying too hard to push against it while holding in its horrifying sneeze. Kyle touched the net, it was an old metal fishing net that must’ve fallen from a commercial  fishing boat. He tried to push at it, but of course, with his little hands, nothing happened. Then, he had an idea. 

“Hurry up kid, this fish is about to blow!” the witch screamed. Kyle swam back to the mouth, but did not enter. “Ask the fish to stop moving!” 

“What?” 

“It needs to stop pulling against the net! If the fish stops moving, it will go lax, and I can untangle it!” 

The witch shook her head. “It’s too late, kid, we have to close the mouth or we will all get hurt too! Come in!” 

Kyle did not listen to her. He swam back to the net, and prayed that the witch wouldn’t give up on him. The sea sorceress, who’s seaweeds had begun to fall from the stress, continued to close the fish’s mouth, but did not look away. Kyle was too far from the fish’s light, he could no longer breathe, but he stayed. The witch relented. She kept the fish’s mouth just a little bit open, and with a gentle hand petted its lips, whispering to it quietly, until it calmed down. When it stopped fighting, Kyle saw the net loosen. Still, it was all tangled up, and the iron net does not bend easily. Kyle continued to hold his breath, and delve deeper, until he reached the ocean floor. He traced the path of the rigid string, until he found a sharp corner against Witch it was caught, and moved it. 

All at once, the great fish moved, shedding the cumbersome net, slamming its mighty fin, turning in the opposite direction— and finally— it sneezed. This sneeze manifested as a giant wave, passing through the Atlantic ocean, nearly capsizing fishing boats, releasing all that swam back to the depths, but otherwise not hurting anybody.

 A few moments later, the fish seemed relieved. It scratched its nose against the rocks, removing excess mucus from its nostrils, and turned back to Kyle, to nudge him gently with its fin. But Kyle was not moving. 

Kyle tried kicking, moving his human feet, but said feet were not responding. And anyways, all he saw was the endless blue, he couldn’t tell up from down, and he wasn’t even sure which direction to swim. Still, he was proud of himself for doing what he did. The fish put its fairy light to his forehead, giving Kyle breath, and whispering the secret direction of the sun. Suddenly, Kyle could tell up from down again, and with the undisputed prowess of being the best swimmer in the tenth grade, he kicked all the way to the surface, coughing out water when he reached the air. 

“Polly!”  he called. 

His little sister was still bobbing between the waves, looking delighted. 

“You’re back! They told me you’d be back! Look, Kyle’s back!” she laughed. Confused, Kyle looked around her, to see a school of mermaids swimming around her. They looked exactly how Kyle imagined mermaids to look, except they are the size of shrimps. A seagull tried to snag one from the sea, but Polly punched it in the face. The mermaids, who normally avoid the surface and the sun and stuck only to the safety of the great fish, made an exception when they saw Polly, and entertained ehr while Kyle was away. The nautical girlies said their farewell, and swam back to the deep, where no doubt they would return to the mouth of the mysterious fish.

Kyle hugged Polly, grateful for her floaties, and grateful for the calming sea. Then, he looked to the beach, and realized the two of them were still incredibly far away, further than he knew he could swim. That’s when he felt something smooth and sharp touch his feet. 

“A shark!” he screamed. 

The shark, a great white with jagged teeth, gently breached the surface, allowing the kids to sit on his back as he carried them back to safety. 

On the beach, their parents were beside themselves. They reprimanded them for playing further in the ocean than they were supposed to, for losing eye contact and forgetting the dangers of high tides. Polly tried to explain to them that they were distracted by mermaids and carried by sharks. Though the worry never left their eyes, the parents were relieved. After representing the kids a while longer, they bought them popsicles, and filled the car with sand, and took long showers, and went to sleep. And though summer ended and Kyle forgot much of what he had seen, he did not forget having a wonderful day at the beach.