The Girl Who Became a Fish

By Lynnette Horn

At the exact moment of awakening on a day of no particular significance, the girl decided to become a fish. Though her decision was without forethought, it resonated true. She quit thrashing about the bed sheets and surrendered to her choice. Her house crumbled into sand around her and her bed became a hole to the sea. An undertow sucked her body into the water, but she didn?t resist. She sank deeper and deeper. Her arms stiffened and stuck to her sides. Her legs fused together. She looked down at her changing body, surprised, but not panicked, at the speed of the transformation.

With rounded lips she sucked in water for the first time and felt the flutter of working gills behind her ears. Her legs swung out from under her. She lay suspended in the clear aqua blue water. A flick of her body sent her gliding. Why, this is like flying. She smiled as best a fish could.

Word of what the girl had done spread quickly through the town. Her friends were aghast. They ran to the beach, which was once her house, and waded into the water to talk sense into her. But, she would have none of it. She was content, at peace with herself, and wanted them to be happy for her. How could she make her friends understand? She could no longer tell them in words what she was feeling. So she swam around them, weaving between their legs with newfound grace. Then she tilted her body to show them the iridescent beauty of her scales when kissed by filtered sunrays.

"Don't come too close!" they shrieked and splashed water to keep her at bay. They did not see her beauty and grace. They only saw her as a smelly, cold fish.

She swam from the shoreline of her house never to look back. She thought she would be sad at losing her friends, but she wasn't. In fact, she felt incomprehensible freedom. The shackles binding her to her old life had been removed and her last ties to the past had been severed.  She swam away smiling as best a fish could.

She found schools of other fish to keep her company, and spent her days riding the currents with them.  She feasted along the brightly colored coral reefs and slept in dark caverns or hidden among the marine flora that grew in patches along the ocean floor.  Every new day brought beauty and magic to her life. She was awestruck by the sparkling sand, the play of light through the water, and the intensity and variety of colors adorning her new friends and neighbors. Memories of her past soon faded.

At the exact moment of awakening on a day of no particular significance, a much larger fish spotted her lying in a bed of tape grass. It swam up behind her and swallowed her whole. The girl who became a fish was no more. No one grieved her passing. The other fish scattered from the danger, regrouped, and then swam away. The larger fish, now satiated and ready to start the new day, smiled as best a fish could.