Once upon a time, there was a fish named George. He was an
enormously large fish for his age. All of the kids in his school made fun of
him. An orange guppy by the name of Oria was the only other fish that would
talk to him. One day, Oria and her family decided to move to another school,
and suddenly George was all alone. Oria was very sad to leave George, but she
knew they would be okay in the end.
I am a yellow submarine. Every day I look down on them both.
I study them. I feel as though I am them. Neither of them knows this is
happening, it just is.
One day, they will find out about me, and this will all be
over. But, for now, I must continue to study them.
George spent the next three weeks searching for someone or
something to replace Oria with. Unfortunately, he never found any form of
replacement. He spent his days wandering about, looking for a way to fill his
days.
From way up here, I could see that Oria was doing the
same thing. I wasn’t sure at the time of how I could help her, so I decided to
continue to simply sit back and watch.
Hopelessly looking for someone to replace her old best
friend, Oria was beginning to lose hope. Weeks past, and still she found no one
who could measure up to her standards.
A few days after the poor guppies gave up their respectable
searches, I finally decided to swoop in and rescue them both. It was finally
time that they found out the truth.
George swam into the net without much effort on my part.
Oria was more difficult. It took me several tries before finally catching her
off-guard. Neither of them knew what was in store for them.
I knew their parents wouldn’t be too worried, their children
had the habit of swimming off into the distance for several hours before
returning.
When the fish finally woke up from their forced slumbers,
they found themselves in in a very strange environment. No matter how far the
tried to swim, they would never get further than a few inches.
Of course, it only took them a few moments to realize that
they had finally been reunited with one another.
Realizing they were trapped, they decided to work together
in order to break free. They knew they wouldn’t be able to go far, considering
how their area was limited to a mere fish bowl.
Suddenly, Oria noticed a toy fire truck come out of nowhere
and stop beside the clear glass fish bowl. She immediately looked at George and
knew he had just had the same idea as she did.
For once, their intelligence surprised me. Not only did the
two of them manage to escape the round fish bowl, but they also found a way to
fill the back compartment of the toy fire truck with water so that they could
take turns staying hydrated.
After a few minutes of endless driving, pushing, and
swimming, Oria and George manage to make it to the side of one of my walls where the circular windows are, leading into the sea. To reward them for their constant
efforts, I decided to help them out a bit more and open locked window for them,
myself. I’m sure they were both pretty grateful, because they hurried through
the opening right away.
As I had predicted, both George and Oria parted ways once
they hit the sunken pirate ship, separating their two schools. Neither of them
tried to stay with the other, their final adventure was enough to remind them
that they will stay friends forever, no matter what.
Their families didn’t notice how long they had been gone,
either. Of course, they hadn’t been gone for more than an hour or two, at most.
My research having been completed, I moved to my next
location. Studying the patterns of different schools of fish isn’t always the
most fun, but what else is a yellow submarine to do?
-Alexe Pop