Jack and the Giant Fish

            by Lucien Kahn

 

            Jack loved all animals, especially fish.  He had a pond in his backyard where he kept his most favorite fish of all.  It was white with orange spots; it came from Japan and was called a Koi.  Most Koi are large but Jack’s just wasn’t growing. He had tried everything; even his favorite pepperoni pizza didn’t work. 

           

One day Jack decided to go for a walk to see if there was anything in the shops that could help him and his fish.  It was getting late and Jack wasn’t having any luck when he came upon Leroy’s Handy Dandy Odds and Ends, Do It Yourself Gadgets and Gidgets Shop.  He decided to give it a chance.

            Inside it was dimly lit and there were only two other customers. Hanging on the wall there was a sign. It read, “We Have Everything You Need From Toy Soldiers To Broken Computers–All At Low Prices.”  As he was looking around he was surprised to see a whole shelf devoted to worn out sneakers and chewed newspapers.  But as he shifted his gaze, he saw yet another sign. It said, “DOG SHELF.”  “No wonder,” thought Jack, as he strolled down another aisle.

            In the corner of the shop there was a shelf for fish.  Jack looked and looked for something on the fish shelf that could help him but hadn’t found anything when a mouse startled him so much that he bumped into the shelf, and off of it tumbled a small jar.  On the plain white label it said in black letters, “Leroy’s Fish Flakes.”  He turned it around and read, “in only a couple of days your fish should be as big as you!”  He had found it.  All he needed was in this one jar of fish flakes.  He brought the Fish Flakes to the counter. 

            “How much are these Fish Flakes?” Jack asked.

            “Ten dollars, son,” the kind man behind the counter answered with an accent like a cowboy’s.

            “Ten Dollars!?” Jack repeated, quite surprised.  Jack took out his wallet and counted carefully, “five, six, seven, eight, nine, nine-fifty, nine seventy five.  Nine seventy-five!!  I’m so close, but I don’t have enough!”  Jack didn’t know what to do.  He decided to put the flakes back on the counter and dropping his head he reached for the jar.

            “Hey wait, son!  Are those Leroy’s Fish Flakes?” the man at the counter asked.

            “Um, yeah, they are,” Jack answered, a bit confused.

            “Oh, WELL then, I didn’t ree-lize they were Lee-roy’s Fish Flakes.  They’re only nine twenty-five then.  Sorry son, my eyes are getting’ mighty bad in my old age,” he explained, winking at Jack, who gave an enormous sigh, handed him the money, and skipped out the door.

            Jack skipped all the way back to his house, eager to try the special fish food.  When he got home, he went in the back way to see his Koi, Pongo.  Jack reached into his pocket and wriggled his hand around, searching for the magic fish flakes.  But, they weren’t in his pocket.  Where could they be?  As he frantically looked around him, searching for any hint or clue, his mother called Jack for dinner, “Oh Ja-ack, din-ner!”

            As he slowly and gloomily ate his way through mashed potatoes with gravy, turkey, and salad, he thought he might never see those Fish Flakes, or more importantly, a large koi again.  He decided to go to Leroy’s in the morning.

            Jack woke to the smell of breakfast, ham and eggs.  He gobbled down his eggs, said bye to his mother, and rushed out the door.  It was cold outside, and he was in such a rush to leave, he had forgotten his coat.  When he reached Leroy’s Handy Dandy Odds and Ends, Do It Yourself Gadgets and Gidgets Shop, he ran in.  He asked Leroy about the Fish Flakes, and it turned out that Jack had left them at Leroy’s store, right on the counter.  As he walked home with the jar secure in his pocket, he wondered if the Fish Flakes would really work.

            When he got home, Jack fed all of his other animals and fish and then went straight to the Koi–his favorite fish of all.  He took out the Fish Flakes, unscrewed the lid of the jar and grabbed a pinch of the flakes in his hand, carefully following the instructions on the bottle.  All of a sudden one of his parrots started squawking so loudly and so unexpectedly that Jack stumbled, and the whole contents of the jar flew into the pond as Jack tumbled to the ground.

            Pongo, eyeing the Fish Flakes suspiciously at first, carefully took a tiny nibble.  Then, while Jack looked on helplessly, Pongo nearly leaped out of the water, trying to gobble every last flake.  With each bite, he explanded, blowing up like a balloon right in front of Jack’s wild eyes.  “What should I do? WHAT SHOULD I DO?!” Jack yelled, as Pongo grew so large, his orange spotted tail reached one end of the pond while his nose was touching the other.

            “Oh, Jackie dear.  What’s going on out there?” his mother called as she opened the back door of the house.  Jack spun around, but it was too late.  His mother screamed a high-pitched scream, and fainted right there on the spot.  Jack hurriedly dialed 911 on the telephone.  The phone was answered immediately, so he didn’t have much time to think of what he was going to say.

            “Uhh, um, my mom, she f-f-fainted.”  They asked for his address and said they’d be right over.

         As Jack waited for the emergency people to get there he thought of a great idea.  He would run over to Leroy’s Handy Dandy Odds and Ends, Do It Yourself Gadgets and Gidgets Shop and see if Leroy had some type of flakes which could reverse what the growing flakes had done.  He grabbed his jacket and sprinted out the door and down the street.  By the time he got to Leroy’s store it was dark, and Leroy was there, locking the door to the shop.  Jack ran up to him and asked, out of breath from running, “Leroy, Leroy! Do you have and un-doer or something because Pongo, my fish, ate the whole jar and is HUGE now!”

         “You mean they work? They work? They really work?  Show me where Pongo is.  I’ve got to see this!”  So Leroy and jack ran home so Leroy could see the amazing sight.

         When Leroy and Jack got back to the house, they were surprised to see a fire engine parked in front of the house.  Jack raced ahead of Leroy to let in the firemen who were pounding on the front door.  Jack showed the firemen to the back door and told them what had happened.

         After reviving Jack’s mother, the firemen went back to the truck and brought back the hose they used to fight fires.  All of the firemen took the tools they had brought and began to dig a deep trench.  It was as large as the pond Pongo was in.  When they finished they filled the trench with water gushing from the firetruck hose.  Then they connected it to Pongo’s pond by digging another trench.  This made the pond triple in size.  Pongo, instead of swimming around in the new space, just started growing again, and filled the now larger pond up with his enormous body.

         Jack turned to Leroy and asked, hopefully, “Could I have some type of shrinking flakes, please?”

         “I think I have just the thing.”  Leroy reached into his pocket and pulled out a small jar.  In bold letters it said, UNDOO FLAKES.  Leroy handed the jar to Jack, and before Jack could say “thanks” to the firemen or to Leroy, they were gone.  He took a handful of the flakes and dropped then in the water.  Suddenly, the whole pond, with Pongo in it, shrank back to it’s original size and everything was back to normal.

            After jack had though about it for awhile he decided that maybe it wasn’t so bad to have a small koi after all.

 

THE END