Fish Talk. Yota Prokopi

Mrs Lont, I’ll expect your call! Oh how rude of me, I didn’t even open the door for her, he said to himself as the door closed and he was left in silence looking from the puppet to the fish. ‘Ah… I’ll not give any more thought to this today, it’s been a long day for the fish, I’ll let them rest and maybe look into it tomorrow,’ he said and wrapped the strings around the puppet and left it on his desk. He looked at the clock and as it was already midday he left for home so the fish could have some time to themselves.

      In the tank…

      â€˜Ah my dear, aren’t our little ones beautiful?’

      â€˜They’ve all got something unique! What do you think? Shall we name them?’

      â€˜Good idea. Seven little names for seven little fish!’

      â€˜The blue one with the white fins should be Cloud because his little hands look like clouds.’

      â€˜And the green one with the orange tail should be called Star because in the dark his tail shines like a star.’

      â€˜OK, five more to go!’ counted Artles.

      â€˜The gold one with the red outline around his eyes should be Scarlet.’

      â€˜And the all black one should be Secret because he looks mysterious.’

      â€˜And then it’s… which one’s next?’

      â€˜That one! The purple one with deep purple stripes.’

      â€˜They definitely copied all of our colours!’

      â€˜Any colours I’m missing you seem to have!’

      â€˜We’re multi-coloured and beautiful!’

      â€˜So my beautiful man…what should we call the purple one?’

      â€˜Silky. Let’s call her Silky because she looks so smooth.’

      â€˜And next is the silver one over there?’

      â€˜Yes the silver one! She looks like a spider princess. Let’s call her Web.’

      â€˜That’s six little names for six little fish. We’ve got one more.’

      Bravado and Artles looked at each other.

      â€˜That little guy’s colours make him look like he’s wearing a costume! Half silver, half red with blue fins. Would you look at that? His one side is silver and the other’s red. And… he keeps staring at the puppet on the desk instead of playing with his brothers and sisters. Also he’s got a few black scales which look like buttons on a shirt. He looks like he’s borrowed some clothes from Mr Pensatore.’

      â€˜Maybe he likes to experiment with different looks! Or maybe he wants to be a toy like the puppet!’

      Bravado sighed. He looked at the little fish sitting alone in the corner of the tank waiting for the puppet to move. Eventually he looked at Artles.

      â€˜So, what do you think we should name him?’

      â€˜Well as he likes to play…’

      â€˜Let’s call him…Toy!’

      â€˜Toy! It’s pretty and it suits him. Toy it is!’

      Mr Pensatore left the office and the sun left through the window. It wasn’t yet dark though and all the little fish were playing with their parents except for Toy who was hiding behind the castle in a small tower, looking up at the sky. It looked as if he was anxiously waiting for something but the sun went down and his view didn’t change.

      â€˜Bravado my dear we’ve been so busy playing with our little ones that we’ve forgotten about Toy!’

      â€˜That’s true, I haven’t seen him for a while now, but don’t worry, I’m sure he’s just asleep behind one of the plants. ‘

      â€˜I’m going to go and find him; it’s a shame for him to be on his own. You keep an eye on the rest of them, OK?’