Annabel Angel

Annabel was a beautiful fish. She had the most lovely swishy tail, and everyone told her how wonderful her perfect black scales were. They called her Annabel Angel, and said that she glowed with beauty. But Annabel had a problem. Annabel HATED water. She didn't like swimming. She didn't like the castle, or the bright blue light at the top of her tank. Mom and dad and the other fish didn't seem to mind, but everything about her life made Annabel uncomfortable. And today she was in trouble. Oscar, the ugly algae eater, was in her way when she wanted to show off for the person looking in her tank. She got really mad at him and swished her tail in his face. Mom and Dad saw her and made her go sit in the SMALLEST room in the castle. This made Annabel miserable and sad. Mom had said that she was being vain. Annabel wasn't sure what vain was, but it made her mad, to be called names like that. Annabel decided right then and there, that she wouldn't swim anymore. She just laid there all day, in the tiniest room in the castle. Even when the food came floating down, she stayed right there. 1

All of the sudden, Oscar came in, with a little bit of food dangling from his mouth. 2

'Oscar, you don't eat regular food. You eat yucky old algae!' she said.3

Oscar spit out the food and said, 'Algae may be yucky to you, but I think it tastes great! This food is for you.'4

'Oh. Thank you, Oscar.' She didn't sound very excited.5

'Well, you gonna get out and swim today? I thought you liked swimming.'6

'I HATE swimming. I'm never swimming again. I don't want to be a fish anymore.'7

'Well, what do you want to be?'8

Annabel had never thought about it before. She didn't know what she wanted to be. 'I think I want to be... a DOG!'9

'A dog? well, now, it might be fun to be a dog, I guess. You get to run around and bark and stuff. But you have to eat dog food, and you always have to be walked on a rope. The dogs in the kennels over there are not always very happy about that.'10

'Oh. Well, what about a cat? Cats get to do what they want to, right?'11

'Well, that's true. But they have all that fur and they get very hot.' Oscar was making a lot of sense to Annabel.12

'Well, what about a lizard. They don't have fur, they don't get very hot.'13

'Yes, they sure don't have fur. But they like to live where it is hot. And sometimes, they are owned by people that live in very cold places. And they really DON'T like that.'14

Annabel was getting frustrated. She wanted to be something else, but it seemed like everyone had something to dislike about their life. 'Well, Oscar, I could be like you!'15

'Well, I am a very happy fish. But, I don't think you want to be like me.'16

'Why not? Your happy, aren't you? 17

'Well, I think that you would not like to be so very ugly, and I am sure that, well, you don't like algae!'18

'Oh, Oscar!' Annabel gave him a big hug and laughed. There were many things that she liked about being Annabel Angel, and she would just have to be happy about those. She went back out into her big tank that was just the right temperature, and were she would never be tied to a rope. She saw another person coming to the tank and She showed off how very pretty she really was.19