You know that cliche "toss a hoop over the bottle and win a goldfish" roaming carnival kiosk that gets portrayed in the backgrounds of so many movies? We had one come to our town and it turns out they must have watched the same movies or gotten the idea from somewhere else because they had a little kiosk offering "magical" tadpoles if you won.
Out of every aquatic or even semi-aquatic creature they could have gotten cheap enough, that was easy to maintain or restock in between settlements, they chose tadpoles. Coincidentally near the field where they'd set up there was a (admittedly rather grimy and rubbish filled) pond where frogs were known to lay their eggs. It didn't take a genius to work out where they'd gotten the spawn from, or so I thought.
Out of luck or some previously unknown skill, I managed to win a "magical" tadpole of my very own which I ended up dumping in with my sister's pet fish. I had no idea how to take care of a tadpole other than leaving it in water so I did what any ten year old would do. I hoped my parents would know and sort it out while I watched it turn into a common frog so I could dump it at the pond where it was probably born. Mission accomplished and such.
Except it didn't grow legs, it grew a fish tail and it didn't grow a froggy looking head, it grew hair and something a lot more human looking. My sister was obsessed with her new pet mermaid, or whatever it actually was as it didn't seem to be getting any bigger than twenty-something centimetres. After somehow persuading our parents to buy a bigger tank for her pet (and them not caring or pretending that it wasn't real), she'd spend most of her free hours trying to teach it to speak and it would mimic her mouth movements with worrying accuracy.
Trouble only came when it decided it had enough of being in the tank and managed to flop across the room,down the hallway and into the other fish tank. I found it in there quite happily squishing the poor little fish against the glass while seemingly talking to it. I must have made a noise because the next thing I know it shoved the fish into its mouth,jumped out of the tank and squirmed its way past me back to its own aquarium like it was nothing.
I couldn't tell my parents as they denied that the mermaid was anything other than an exotic fish while my sister had lost interest in her little fish as soon as the mermaid developed a face. The best thing I thought of at that time was calling the nearest aquarium and asking if they were interested in a "weird small shark my uncle brought back from Tijuana because it's too big for the tank now" and somehow they believed little ten year old me. I didn't question it, I just wanted the little monster out of the house in case it got any ideas about eating the rest of us in our sleep.
I made sure that when they came it would be when my sister was out at her friend's place and my parents would be driving her there leaving me and the mermaid alone. I told my parents I would be at our neighbour's house while they were gone to cover my back because, of course, my sister would be absolutely devastated at the loss of her mermaid.
The aquarium sent two "trained marine handlers" who seemed friendly enough until they saw the mermaid playing with the spine of the fish (as it had been doing with increasing frequency at the time). I played the dumb kid and maintained that it was a weird shark from Tijuana while they tried to figure out how to handle it, or if they could handle it. It took them a while to figure out that they could just grab the mermaid by the end of the tail and the scruff of the neck to slip it into a large, padded, glass transporter tank.
When it was time for me to be collected from the neighbour's place (that I'd slipped into the second the aquarium guys left) I played dumb kid again and was unbelievably upset that my sister's fish was gone. She bawled her eyes out and demanded we try to find it, even printing out "lost fish" posters to stick all around the area. My parents seemed quite relieved to have the thing gone and while they never questioned me about it, they gave me a fair few treats for no apparent reason.
After my sister had begun to get over the loss of her mermaid our parents thought it would be a great idea to take us to the local aquarium who said they had a mermaid themselves. She was furious about it and said their mermaid would never be as special or amazing as hers because hers used to talk. On the drive there I realised this aquarium was the same one that took her mermaid in the first place and spent the rest of the drive preparing myself for her reaction.
There was no way I could have fully prepared myself for the way she reacted, trying to break the glass and screeching out at everyone that the aquarium had stolen her pet while the staff only said that they'd rescued it from a home in another state entirely.
While this was going on the mermaid, now almost five feet in length, remained right at the front of the (admittedly enormous and well suited) tank, webbed hands pressed against the glass. Our eyes met, brown to black, and it mouthed out something that still keeps me up, worrying that I might wake up to find it right next to me.
It mouthed "You're my next fish."
Out of every aquatic or even semi-aquatic creature they could have gotten cheap enough, that was easy to maintain or restock in between settlements, they chose tadpoles. Coincidentally near the field where they'd set up there was a (admittedly rather grimy and rubbish filled) pond where frogs were known to lay their eggs. It didn't take a genius to work out where they'd gotten the spawn from, or so I thought.
Out of luck or some previously unknown skill, I managed to win a "magical" tadpole of my very own which I ended up dumping in with my sister's pet fish. I had no idea how to take care of a tadpole other than leaving it in water so I did what any ten year old would do. I hoped my parents would know and sort it out while I watched it turn into a common frog so I could dump it at the pond where it was probably born. Mission accomplished and such.
Except it didn't grow legs, it grew a fish tail and it didn't grow a froggy looking head, it grew hair and something a lot more human looking. My sister was obsessed with her new pet mermaid, or whatever it actually was as it didn't seem to be getting any bigger than twenty-something centimetres. After somehow persuading our parents to buy a bigger tank for her pet (and them not caring or pretending that it wasn't real), she'd spend most of her free hours trying to teach it to speak and it would mimic her mouth movements with worrying accuracy.
Trouble only came when it decided it had enough of being in the tank and managed to flop across the room,down the hallway and into the other fish tank. I found it in there quite happily squishing the poor little fish against the glass while seemingly talking to it. I must have made a noise because the next thing I know it shoved the fish into its mouth,jumped out of the tank and squirmed its way past me back to its own aquarium like it was nothing.
I couldn't tell my parents as they denied that the mermaid was anything other than an exotic fish while my sister had lost interest in her little fish as soon as the mermaid developed a face. The best thing I thought of at that time was calling the nearest aquarium and asking if they were interested in a "weird small shark my uncle brought back from Tijuana because it's too big for the tank now" and somehow they believed little ten year old me. I didn't question it, I just wanted the little monster out of the house in case it got any ideas about eating the rest of us in our sleep.
I made sure that when they came it would be when my sister was out at her friend's place and my parents would be driving her there leaving me and the mermaid alone. I told my parents I would be at our neighbour's house while they were gone to cover my back because, of course, my sister would be absolutely devastated at the loss of her mermaid.
The aquarium sent two "trained marine handlers" who seemed friendly enough until they saw the mermaid playing with the spine of the fish (as it had been doing with increasing frequency at the time). I played the dumb kid and maintained that it was a weird shark from Tijuana while they tried to figure out how to handle it, or if they could handle it. It took them a while to figure out that they could just grab the mermaid by the end of the tail and the scruff of the neck to slip it into a large, padded, glass transporter tank.
When it was time for me to be collected from the neighbour's place (that I'd slipped into the second the aquarium guys left) I played dumb kid again and was unbelievably upset that my sister's fish was gone. She bawled her eyes out and demanded we try to find it, even printing out "lost fish" posters to stick all around the area. My parents seemed quite relieved to have the thing gone and while they never questioned me about it, they gave me a fair few treats for no apparent reason.
After my sister had begun to get over the loss of her mermaid our parents thought it would be a great idea to take us to the local aquarium who said they had a mermaid themselves. She was furious about it and said their mermaid would never be as special or amazing as hers because hers used to talk. On the drive there I realised this aquarium was the same one that took her mermaid in the first place and spent the rest of the drive preparing myself for her reaction.
There was no way I could have fully prepared myself for the way she reacted, trying to break the glass and screeching out at everyone that the aquarium had stolen her pet while the staff only said that they'd rescued it from a home in another state entirely.
While this was going on the mermaid, now almost five feet in length, remained right at the front of the (admittedly enormous and well suited) tank, webbed hands pressed against the glass. Our eyes met, brown to black, and it mouthed out something that still keeps me up, worrying that I might wake up to find it right next to me.
It mouthed "You're my next fish."
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