Short Stories by Dandi Palmer

Author:Dandi Palmer [Palmer, Dandi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction, Humor, Ghost, alien, Humour, space travel, robot, cemetery, gargoyle, haunted cafe, mirror, ghost cooks, secret laboratory, delinquent, custard doughnut, interdimensional egg, schoolboy, sandwich, chocolate, rubbish tip, fossil fish, sculptor, short stories teenage, paranormal fiction, hunt, giant rat, will, puffball, different universe
Publisher: Dandi Palmer
Published: 2011-07-30T17:23:56+00:00

Angela had never seen so many teeth on a fish. But then, it was a very odd fish. Its body had several ridges running from snout to tail like a reinforced box, its scales were large and leathery, and it was in a very bad mood. It had been trapped in a rock pool as the tide went out and in fury its powerful tail was whisking away the water that remained.

“Don't do that,” Angela told it, “you'll make all the water run out, then you'll suffocate.”

The fish peered at Angela with round red eyes as though it wanted her for breakfast.

“Just how long have you been stuck like that?” Angela asked.

After a long pause the fish opened its fierce jaws and said. “If you are so worried about it, why don't you carry me out to sea?”

Angela looked at its sharp teeth. “Goodness no, you might bite.”

“And make you drop me? I may be a fish, but I am not stupid.”

Its fins were very sturdy, like convenient handles, so Angela picked it up.

As she walked with it towards the outgoing sea she asked the fish, “What were you doing so close to the cliff and all those rocks?”

“That's where I used to live.”

“What? In the rocks?”

“Oh yes."

“That's silly. Nothing could live in those rocks. There's nothing to eat.”

Despite being out of water for some minutes, the fish wasn't gasping for breath. When Angela put it down in the shallow swell it looked up at her, balancing on its powerful fins like an irritable footstool.

“You are a very odd fish,” insisted Angela.

“Perhaps I am,” it replied, then turned and waddled into the sea.

In the distance Angela's mother was waving to her so she ran back up the beach. Angela's brother had built a large, ugly sand castle and her father had fallen asleep in a deckchair.

“Mum..."

Angela's mother stopped knitting and looked at her daughter.

“Shouldn't fish be soft and slippery?”

“Of course."

“Not hard, like a bike saddle with two rows of sharp teeth?”

Angela's mother was puzzled. “Not usually. What makes you ask?”

“Oh, nothing. Can I go and play by those rocks over there?”

“Yes, so long as you don't climb up them.”

Angela went round every rock she could reach, searching for the home of the odd fish. Where had it come from? How had it managed to breathe when the tide went out? She was about to give up her search when, at last, in one of the large rocks, she found a shallow depression shaped just like her fish. In the impression she could count its teeth and tough scales.

Angela insisted her mother come and look at it. She became very excited and phoned the local museum. Within an hour a young woman with a small pick and a large satchel arrived. When she saw the impression of the fish in the rock she was even more excited.

The next day a group of people came from London. Angela was allowed to watch as they measured, sketched and took photos of the fish, which they called a fossil.

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