My Friend Anemone

My only friend in the sea was the anemone. Because I befriended him, all the other fishes bullied and mocked at me for being friends with a monster that eats other fishes. For a long time in my clown fish life, I was pelted by rude comments and beaten by other fishes. I decided to end my torment.

I told the anemone, my first friend, that I was going to leave him and scrub off the natural gel that had kept me safe from his tazing tentacle arms. He did not reply, he never replies or says anything. Having a friend for a friend means no conversations whatsoever.

I scrubbed off my anti-anemone gel and swam towards the other fishes. I told them that I was done being friends with a loner and they accepted me. I had a wonderful time with my new friends. It was a better life, a fun one.

One day, a shark came to my home and started eating my new fishy friends. The manta ray placed himself on the sandy ocean floor and blended with his surroundings, hiding in plain sight. The octopus did the same thing. The puffer fish turned herself into an uneatable ball of spikes while the other fishes hid on holes on the ground. All the other fishes had cool and special defenses, tricks and hiding places, except for me. The shark noticed this and he barrled towards me, a white torpedo of teeth and hunger.

I swam away until I was in front of the anemone, the only creature who could probably help me. Probably. “Please, help me!”.

“No”. He said, suprisingly, for the first time.

“Please, I’ll do anything!”.

“Was abandoning me ‘anything’ to you?”.

“What? No, please, I need you!”.

“No you don’t. You want me, yet do not need me. If you really needed me in your life, then you would never have left me for fishes who have already betrayed you. You would have found a better way to live with me and them together. But you chose yourself. You’re not just a clown, but a fool. Better to be a friend of an honest freak for a long time than entertainment for rascals in a short moment”.

I turned behind me, and the last thing I saw were rows of a hundred white, triangular teeth in a bloody maw, and then nothing at all.