Finley the Not-So-Quiet Fish

Most fish are very quiet.  They swim under the water silently and whisper to one another when they meet.

Not so, Finley the catfish.

Finley was almost never quiet.  He preferred talking loudly.  And he liked splish-splashing around the surface of the water instead of swimming silently underneath.

Finley lived in the little pond near Kindly Castle in Kindly Kingdom.  The pond was surrounded by tall yellow flowers.  Frogs brip-bripped at the edge of the water.  In the spring, fuzzy baby geese wagged their feathery tails and curly-cued around in the water, quack-quacking.

Best of all, Princess Mackenna lived in the nearby Castle.   Finley and Princess Mackenna were friends.

One warm summer day, the little Princess came to the pond for a picnic with her father and mother, the King and Queen of Kindly Kingdom.  While the King and Queen spread a blue blanket on the green grass, Princess Mackenna walked to the edge of the pond.

When Finley saw her from the other side of the pond, he splashed all the way across the water and shouted “HELLO!” from as close as he could swim to the little Princess.  He remained in the shallow water there, splashing up a storm.

“Hello, Finley,” said the little Princess.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING TODAY?” Finley asked

“We are having a picnic.”

“SPLENDID!” bellowed the fish.  “I LOVE A PICNIC!”  He swam backward and forward, spraying water in all directions.  “WILL YOU BE EATING RED LADYBUGS WITH BLACK SPOTS AT YOUR PICNIC?”

“No,” said the little Princess, “I could not imagine eating those!”

Finley the fish dove under the water and then jumped up into the air and made a big splash when he landed.  He wiggled his long whiskers.  “MAYBE YOU WILL HAVE PURPLE LADYBUGS WITH WHITE SPOTS,” Finley suggested.

“No…”  The little Princess shook her head.  “I like purple and white.  I like red and black.  But little girls don’t eat ladybugs of any color.”

“SPLENDID!” Finley said again.  He liked that word.  “MAYBE YOU WILL EAT SOME OF THESE FINE YELLOW FLOWERS.”  He swam near a bunch of the flowers along the edge of the pond and splashed at them.

“No,” said Princess Mackenna.  “Little girls don’t eat yellow flowers, or tall flowers, or small flowers, or any kind of flowers at all.”

“GOOD HEAVENS,” Said Finley, “WHAT WILL YOU EAT?”

“I don’t know for certain,” she admitted.  “I must go see.”

“GOODBYE!” shouted Finley.  He quickly splashed back across the pond.

The little Princess said “goodbye” and ran back to where the King and Queen had set out food on the blue blanket.  She saw red apples and green grapes and yellow cheese and three glasses of cold milk.  When Princess Mackenna was a very small girl, she called milk “money.”   She liked drinking milk very much.

“I am glad we are not eating red ladybugs with black spots or purple ladybugs with white spots,” Princess Mackenna told her mother.

“I have seen red ladybugs with black spots,” the Queen said, “but have never considered eating one.  I have never seen a purple ladybug with white spots, but I should like to.”

“Me too,” said Princess Mackenna.  “But for now, I am ready for a picnic!”

-- Mitchell Hegman