Fishy Chronicles 38: In The Jaws Of A Nightmare

"Why are you creeping about in the dark?" Genie said behind my back.

I leapt into the air in the tiny corridor between our bedrooms and almost hit the wall. I felt Genie's hands steady me. My heart ricocheted in my ribcage and I wondered how long I could take this sort of stress. I turned to look at Genie in the dim light streaming in from the kitchen window, but his face was in the shadows.

"I-I-I t-t-thought I heard noises from the s-s-sitting r-room."

"Hmmm, I thought so too." He went ahead of me and ordered in a whisper, "Stay here."

I straightened. "Really, Genie! With the racket we just made, any burglar in the flat would have jumped out of the window!"

"There are grills on the windows and we'd have heard the door open or close."

"Kuch bhi."

"Plus that squeaky hinge that we have to fix. I'm sure he hasn't gone. Probably still here and hiding under the sofa."

"I doubt it!" I pushed past Genie and we wrestled for supremacy until better sense overcame me - Genie was bigger and stronger. He moved ahead, but I pulled him back and into the kitchen. I handed him the iron pestle from the kitchen platform. He snorted. I didn't care. I was giving any burglar time to escape Genie. I rummaged around the overhead drying rack noisily and felt Genie's hand hold mine still. "What are we looking for?" he whispered in my ear. I shivered.

"The rolling pin!" 

He was tall enough to look into the rack and gently lifted it out from under a load of spoons. Thus armed we tiptoed into the sitting room.

We nearly had the fright of our lives. There was a loud thud near us and I felt Genie push me hard backwards into the corridor. I fell against the wall, felt pain in my elbow but instantly jumped back into the living room.

I knew Genie was angry with me for not obeying him. But what the hell were we doing in there without a strong torch. I stamped my feet to frighten the burglar out. I felt a hand clamp over my mouth and screamed futilely until Genie said in my ear. "Stop it!"

I struggled but good sense took over again, especially when I saw what was happening in the tank. Fish were frantically zipping around. The loud sound we had heard was the fish tank lid hitting the wall behind. But when I looked closer, I saw Gregory passed out and lying at the bottom of the tank.

"What's happening to them?" Genie said, sounding distressed. I couldn't figure it out. I put my hand in the tank and tried to catch the others.

"Stop, guys. You're hurting yourselves!" I said. They bounced off the walls, were disoriented for a bit and then started again. "STOP IT!"

"I think they've had something strong," Genie said. I doubted he was joking.

"Catch them, Genie! I'll get the fish net," I ran to my supplies cabinet and pulled out the net that was enough to hold two fish. 

I returned to find Genie disturbed - what an alien look for the always-composed Genie. He had Gregory in his hand and was staring at the still body. I took Gregory from him and handed Genie the net. "Get the others. Make sure you get all of them."

He cleared his throat, "Greg..."

I massaged my little intellectual gently. One of the fish breeders I had interacted with at some point told me to hold Fish near the oxygenator if I suspected they had had no oxygen for a while. I massaged Gregory's gills and held him and a wriggling Portas against the air bubbles. I spoke to them, assuring them that we were around and they were safe. With Genie holding Penaaz and Pervez captive in the net and Dimitri in his other hand we waited.

In about 20 minutes Fish had roused and were quiet. Gregory giggled occasionally. I had tickled him to wake him and was still doing so because I wanted to make sure the knock he had had left no adverse effects.

When they looked a little like their old selves, Genie asked, "What happened, guys?" They were huddled in our palms, seeking comfort.

"I dreamt Rudy was attacking us," Gregory said.

"Rudy?" Genie said.

"The shark in the movie Jaws," there was a cry in the tank and Fish clung to our hands. They had named the shark. It wasn't Rudy, but the sharks shared the same fearsomeness and tenacity.

"That's just a movie, guys. You know what I keep telling you about watching horror films at night..." I said beginning to feel exasperated at this whole avoidable drama.

"Pot calling kettle black..." one of the fish muttered.

"... says someone who watches horror movies past midnight all the time..."

".... scares herself silly and stays awake the whole night... "

"... hypocrite..."

"... different rules for herself..."

"... she didn't sleep days when she watched IT, Annabel, Insidious..."

"... especially Conjuring..."

"... we slept with all the lights on in every room until good sense returned... and now she won't let us watch Jaws!"

"Stop it, guys!" I protested. Luckily, I was able to crawl into bed with my parents after some of those movies. I had insisted my mother hold me tight while I attempted to sleep. I glanced at Genie, he'd be useless for a comforting cuddle. "Why do you revisit the movie when it keeps reminding you of Rudy?"

Genie cleared his throat. "Who's Rudy?"

There was a collective gasp in the tank. I spoke first, "You don't know, Genie?"

"But you've been with us forever!" Dimitri said in disbelief.

"That means you don't know a thing about us!" Portas said huffily.

"Or that short-term memory business..." Gregory said.

"Really!" Penaaz huffed, giving Genie a dirty look. I would have shrivelled up at the look but I could see all of Genie's pearly whites in a neat row now. His handlebar moustache stuck out prominently from the sides of his face and his beautiful dimples dived deep into his cheeks.

"You're messing with us!" Portas hopped about the tank angrily.

I punched Genie's shoulder with my wet fist. "Really, Genie! Rudy is our arch enemy! Even if I haven't personally shaken fins with him he's the stuff of all nightmares."

Genie shrugged, "You guys want us to stay longer?" he asked Fish.

"Could we stay in your room tonight?" Penaaz said. Lady fish weren't immune to Genie's charms either.

"Sure, you can tell me more about Rudy." He rolled the tank into his bedroom and closed his door. I stood outside feeling left out. It would have been awkward to ask if I could join them. I went back to the sitting room and switched on the TV.

                                     ******

This is a fictional series about the narrator and her former pet fish and former manservant Genie. Fish and Genie have returned to Mumbai and are catching up with the narrator. 

In this episode, Fish have a nightmare and revisit old foes. 

                                     ******

Rudy the shark.

I first saw Rudy in a tank in a public aquarium. My parents had suddenly decided to go to Malaysia to visit my aunt. I had been working a year and this was my first break. I had been evasive about my trip at work, not wanting adverse or envy-tinged commentary.

"You're so old," my cousin Roma had said, while giving me a list of goodies she wanted - those days we still needed to ask family or friends living abroad to get us global branded goods. Travelling out of India was a huge thing. "You're an old person in a young person's body. Someone else would have been shouting about it till their lungs exploded." So said my cousin who never tells anyone of her travel or any plans until they are well and truly accomplished. When I confronted Roma about her hypocrisy, she said, "Who has the time for so much build up and drama."

Anyway, my parents and I travelled from Muar in Johore Baru to Singapore by bus to catch up with more relatives. One of my Chinese-Malayali cousins took us to the aquarium. We'd been there many times but it never lost its charm - the varieties of sharks, dolphins and nameless others. It seemed like magic each time we visited.

It was a hot sweltering day by Singapore standards - in those days people visited Singapore without researching the weather or caring about the heat. At the aquarium, we saw turmoil above us. People yelled in shock and cowered. Nothing of course would have happened, but a couple of times a massive reddish shark bounced into the fortified glass over our heads. It was chasing something... or things.

A small school of fish were flinging tiny objects at him. Most of it seemed to hit the shark's eyes or was sucked into its gills - the precision of the aim was remarkable. And the fish were pure idiots. They darted out together, spread immediately so that Rudy was utterly confused and then dived at his eyes, snout or body, bit into them and then raced back to the nearest stone outcrop. They slid easily into small crevices with Rudy behind them unable to slow and smacking into the craggy walls more than a couple of times. I felt pity for him - blood oozed out of his ruptured skin.

It was the strangest thing. I heard laughter - or thought I did. The overhead aquarium was almost empty now. Most fish were hiding and the ones larger than Rudy were watching from a safe distance.

After several tries, Rudy gave up efforts to corner the fish and disappeared, leaving a trail of blood behind him. It took some time for the other fish to start moving about. But those little daredevil fish emerged soon, did high-fives, torpedoed about the aquarium and then disappeared.

You know one of them - Portas. How I got him is another incredible story.