I have more prose and a name for my fish story. I’m calling it “Still Waters Run Deep (The Fish Story).” I got the idea from Vera Riley, a lady in my creative writing class. She helped my a ton with the book we’re publishing. Anyways here’s the new material:

Part 2:

A few minutes from the Love Bed, nestled between a big mass of brain coral and a huge grey rock, was a little diner called Sal’s. It was lit softly by a few rays of moonlight that pushed down through a cloud of red algae high above. The diner was bathed in a soft red glow. It was like an underwater sunset.

There were a few other fish cozied up in nooks and crannies all over the diner. They were mostly couples, talking softly to each other. In one corner, sat a lonely hermit crab. He hummed a forlorn melody that reminded him of his childhood. The mood of the place was somber and romantic, a far cry from the frenzied lust of the Love Bed.

Adelai led Steve to a small alcove in the back of the diner, near a tuft of sea grass. The lighting there was more subdued and there weren’t as many other fish around. It was quite intimate. They settled in and waited for some plankton to float by. Steve spoke first.

“This is nice,” he said. “It’s really…quiet.”

“I like it here,” Adelai replied. “I come here a lot, just to think and relax.”

“What do you think about?”

“Oh, lots of things. Anything really. I just let my mind wander. Like, I was wondering the other day about seaweed.”

“What’s that?”

“Seaweed? It’s this green stuff that’s practically everywhere.” She pointed at several large clumps of sea grass that were growing nearby.

“No, I know what seaweed is! I meant what were you wondering about it?”

“Oh. Well, I was thinking, if I became a vegetarian I would have to swear off all of the plankton, tiny fish, and bugs that I usually eat. The only thing left would be seaweed.”

“Hmmm, that’s true,” said Steve, and then a thought came to him. “Why would you want to be a vegetarian?”

“I don’t. I was just thinking that if I were, I’d have to eat seaweed. I think that’s probably why there aren’t many vegetarian fish.”

Just then, a small cluster of plankton, mostly krill, floated past them. Steve lunged forward and snatched a mouthful out of the cloud. The water swirled around him and his scales flashed with the sudden movement. He swam back to their spot and spit half of the plankton out in front of Adelai.

She smiled and said, “Well, thank you. I guess it’s a good thing I’m not vegetarian.”

Steve gulped his food quickly to avoid talking with his mouth full. The effect was negated by the guttural noises of his throat. Adelai smiled and nipped at her own food.

“I don’t suppose you’ve ever heard of sharking before, have you?” Steve asked.

“Sharking? No, I can’t say that I have. Is that where you grew up?”

“Are you kidding? Sharking is the biggest thrill there is! It’s danger, speed, and danger all at the same time!” he was getting excited.

“You said danger twice.”

“That’s cause it’s really dangerous. Some of my best friends have lost their fins while sharking, but it’s worth the risk.” Steve got more and more excited the longer he thought about it. Adelai was interested, but unmoved.

“How can anything be worth losing a fin? What’s makes it so incredible?”

Steve put on his best Crazy Bob impression and sold Sharking to her like it was the oldest car on the lot.

“Well, what you do is,” he began, “you hang around any old dark coral reef or cliff ledge. Anywhere you would expect to find a shark is good.”

“A shark!” Adelai exclaimed in her best “shocked” voice. She was playing along. “Are you kidding?”

“No way bab..uh, Adelai.” Steve stuttered for a moment but quickly regained his momentum. “You find a shark that looks like he’s moving pretty fast, and when he’s not looking, you swim up behind him and tuck yourself under one of his fins. If you’re lucky, he won’t spot you, and when he takes off, it’s a hell of a ride. I had friend who went three miles out on one sharking run. It took him a week to swim home.”

Steve’s gills flared in and out. He was all worked up. He searched Adelai’s face for any sign of emotion. She seemed quite calm and not at all excited. However, Steve thought he could see a bit of a gleam in her bright blue eyes.

“Three miles?” she said with a supercilious tone. “Back when I was in school I was the first one to ride the Vera Cruz channel on one shark. It’s a five-mile run from the Vera Cruz coast to the San André coast. We called it fin surfing, but it’s basically the same thing.”

Once again, Steve found his mouth hanging open. He would have been fairly surprised if she’d said she’d heard of sharking. But here she was, an expert! The thought of her screaming through the water just millimeters away from a massive Gulf shark was a huge turn on for him. The mysteries contained within her pink body were apparently endless. Every new secret he discovered made the mystery that much greater.

Now, more than ever, Steve felt the urge to fertilize with her. It had been building inside of him since they left the Love Bed and now it was becoming hard to contain it.

“It’s kind of warm here,” he lied, “Do you want to go for a swim?”

“Okay, sure.” she said. Adelai left her half-eaten plankton floating in the current. The hermit crab in the corner stopped humming his song long enough to gobble it up.

***

Steve and Adelai swam along the ocean floor. Adelai was talking about how she and her friends used to do all sorts of crazy things: fin surfing, deep diving, even sneaking up to the surface, and how she doesn’t do anything like that anymore. The time for being reckless and carefree was over. Now it was time to slow down and find her niche in life.

Steve barely heard her. She was swimming so close and all he could think about was how smooth her scales felt when she bumped into him. It sent sparks like electricity all along his body.

After a few minutes, they reached a clearing. On one side, it was bordered by a sheer cliff face, on the other, a high curtain of sea weed. It was very romantic.

“So, do you want to lay some eggs right here?” Steve blurted out.

Damn! Damn! Damn! Damn! Damn! Damn! he thought. That was not smooth.

“What?” Adelai whipped around to face him. “Are you kidding? Is that all you can think about?”

“Well no..but..” Steve faltered.

“No really, you can’t go twenty minutes without getting off can you?” She was getting angrier.

“I…I..” Steve was speechless. This was not how he had envisioned it.

“You what? You’re sorry? You don’t know what came over you? You’re a nimrod?” Adelai could feel her cold blood turning colder.

“I can’t believe I fell for it. I really thought there was something to you. I should’ve known.” An anguished sob broke free from her lips. “I’m going home!”

Adelai turned, with all the contempt she could muster, and swam back towards her coral nest.

“Adelai, wait.” Steve’s voice broke, and for the first time in his life he cried.

***

Adelai’s first time was with a guy she never saw again. She had just arrived at her new school. All of the fish in her class were trying new things. It was normal, even encouraged for a fish like her to go out and discover herself.

On weekends she would go ride currents with her friends. They usually ended up in some private gully near the coast. They would spend the night there talking and looking for new places to explore.

One night, in April, Adelai was swimming around the floor of a tall canyon she had found with one of the other fish that had come. He was a long and silver. That was all she ever remembered about him; that and the only words he ever said to her:

“How `bout you lay some eggs right here?”

She barely even thought about it. Looking back she never understood what it was that made her do it, but ever so slowly, she laid two hundred and sixty-nine eggs. The silver fish watched her the whole time. She could feel his eyes on her. Part of her felt strange, but another part of her thrilled at what she was doing. When she had finished the silver fish swam in a big circle all around the eggs spraying clouds of sperm. And with a flick of his caudal fin, he left. He never even said goodbye.

That night she cried herself to sleep. It was the most empty feeling she had ever felt before. Years went by and the emptiness faded. It never went away, but the size of the hole seemed smaller compared to the other things in her life. She made new friends, met other guys, and found new places. Like a blur her school years went by and she found herself looking for a place to settle down in.

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