population-we™: Creative Writing II: 'The Bait'

I wrote the following creative writing story some 23 years ago of an encounter between a SCUBA diver and a few fish. The goal for the assignment was to write a character sketch from a picture (shown below). Today, Brian and I are avid SCUBA divers! May 2013 marks our second year of diving; we both are PADI and SSI certified open water divers, as well as belong to Greater Omaha SCUBA Club. So, after a recent shark tooth dive trip to Venice, Fla. (I'll blog on that later), and several encounters with fish on our dives, I decided to share the story below with fellow population-we™ readers.

The Bait

The puked greenish fish hesitates before lunging forward to devour probably its easiest catch of the day. One eye rests upon the waving piece of meat and the other curiously scans the man grasping the bait. The fish ponders the thought of attempting to snatch the prey from the strange looking creature.

Alfred, a month old Hagfish, happens to be new to the stony shallow coral. He's out exploring on his own the river notches, clefts, canyons, and tunnels when he unexpectedly came upon an obscure looking creature. Stunned at first, Alfred didn't know what to think of the strange creature's appearance. He had never seen a beast with tentacles jolting from its mouth that curiously connected to a blue hump on its back before. The beast spoke with echoing gurgling sound followed by the materialization of bubbles. Like an octopus, the beast had two strange arms and unusual sized webbed feet. As Alfred stared into the creatures eyes, he could catch a glimpse of his own curious reflection and then noticed two buggy eyes staring back.

Alfred wasn't the only fish that noticed this peculiar kind of species swimming around. Lance, a Kingfish, that looks like an oversized Yellow Angelfish with a bad attitude, is hovering over the strange creature, trying to get a better view. Ralph, a Stickleback, with food always on his mind, swims over to investigate what curious edibles the beast is holding. All of the fish had one thought on their mind and that was what was this beast doing here.

The creature lunged the meat forward towards Alfred but he countered that action by jerking backwards. Now the seaweed and algae covered rocks flew through the water because of the commotion. The onlookers watched attentively now as ever, because of the creature's sudden hasty movement on their friend. Alfred, feeling a little unsure about this situation, floated a couple feet away planning his next counterattack. To Alfred's long scaly appearance, the man appeared to be a blue mammoth-sized beast, who had entered their domain. Alfred closed in on the beast for the kill. Yes, he decided to take the bait. The aroma was too strong and the circumstances too sporty for him to turn away now. Alfred threw a couple cold glances toward Lance and Ralph warning them to stay away from the beast.

Alfred wouldn't have thought twice about seizing the opportunity to snatch the meat from the man again, except for the voice of his mother nagging him in the back of his head. She would always lecture Alfred not to take food from strangely dressed creatures. Remembering his mother's wise advice, he backed up slowly, turned around, and started to swim home to his mommy. He didn't look behind himself, but in the background Alfred could hear the faint cries of Lance, whose stomach undoubtedly got him in trouble for good this time.

I hope you enjoyed my high school creative writing story; in fact, I earned an "A" for the assignment. Who knew I would some day, along with my husband, take up the sport of SCUBA diving. Read additional SCUBA diving posts at Finding Inspiration at Sea and [Earth Day Edition] pop-we Highlights Greater Omaha SCUBA Club's Project AWARE Efforts. Also, watch in the week's ahead for a blog post on our May 2013 Florida shark tooth dive. Keep Diving!

-population-we™ blog post by Becky Bohan Brown

Pin It