Chapter 81: Book 2 Chapter 9: Something Fishy

Kim sat in the sand and stared at the ocean. Lee said doing so helped her think. It wasn’t helping Kim much.

She had expected some sort of weight to be lifted off her chest, or some fog to clear from her mind. She’d told her friends she was a machine, not a human, and they still accepted her, trusted her, even liked her. That was supposed to have made her feel better. But it didn’t. She was just as lost and confused as she’d been since her first day ‘alive’.

“Rough day?”

Kim jumped out of her sandy seat and looked around. She thought she’d picked an isolated section of the beach, and she should’ve heard anyone approaching her. After hastily looking around at the sand, Kim still saw no one.

“In the water.”

Kim turned and saw the waves splashing gently against a small mackerel that had it’s head sticking out of the water. The fish lifted a fin out of the ocean in a strange attempt at a wave.

“Hey.”

“Oh, hi.”

“You don’t seem too phased by the talking fish,” it noted.

“It’s been a weird few weeks,” Kim said.

“And I suppose it can’t hurt that you’re a bit strange yourself,” the talking fish said. “I’m a talking fish, you’re a talking computer-”

“How do you know about that?”

“Same reason I can talk,” the fish said. “I’m a bit magical.”

“Uh, okay…”

“Sorry if that was coming on a bit too strong,” the fish said. “I just sort of felt like we were kindred spirits. Believe it or not, as a talking fish, I sort of feel out of place too.”

“I guess I can see that,” Kim said. At least she looked human, and had friends (she hoped) to talk to. The fish probably had a much harder time fitting in. Fish couldn’t talk, and humans couldn’t breathe underwater. Most of them, at least. Michaela from the Marine Biology department had gills, but nobody wanted to talk to her.

A wave washed over it, and the mackerel extended a fin out of the water, in Kim’s direction.

“Just thought I’d say hi, see if I could do anything to lift your spirits. You can call me Wish Fish,” he said.

“Kim. Nice to meet you, Wish Fish,” she said. “But I’m just...thinking, right now. I’ll be all right.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“Maybe, but I’m not going anywhere until I at least try to put a smile on that face,” Wish Fish said. “Do you want to see my impression of an octopus?’

She didn’t, but to be polite, Kim nodded. The Wish Fish sunk his head beneath the waves and started to squirm across the ocean floor, flailing his long body wildly. After about a minute of that, he righted himself and poked out of the waves again.

“Pretty good, right?”

“Uh...I’m not sure I got it,” Kim said.

“What’s not to get? I was wiggling. You know, because of the tentacles. It’s an octopus, they move by wiggling around?”

Kim tried not to make eye contact, which was difficult to do when dealing with a creature that didn’t blink. Wish Fish stared expectantly at her, hoping she would get the joke, before relenting with a sigh.

“It’s probably just a land-dweller humor kind of thing,” Kim assured him. “I’m sure it’d kill with other fishes.”

“You mean it’d krill with other fishes,” Wish Fish said. “Eh? Eh?”

Kim still didn’t understand, so she turned her thoughts inward for a moment. One upside to being a robot was that she had a wifi connection in her brain, and when she didn’t understand something (which was often), she could simply google it inside her own brain.

“Krill: small crustaceans of the order Euphausiacea, found in all the world's oceans,” Kim said. “But they are crustaceans, not fish. What do they have to do with anything?”

“Oh forget it,” Wish Fish said. Kim mentally googled a few more comedy terms, and eventually realized what she had missed.

“Oh, you were making a pun,” she said. “I’m sorry. There’s still a lot of things I don’t really understand.”

Kim could access all the world’s information, but all the knowledge in the world didn’t create understanding. She lacked reasoning and context, and never fully understood why people acted the way they did. All she could do was try to identify what was ‘normal’ and then try her best to play along.

“No problem, kid. I know how it feels to get dropped into a world that don’t make sense,” Wish Fish said. “Least you got books. I had to learn to read from boat names and warning labels on scuba gear.”

“That sounds tough,” Kim said. “I’m sorry.”

“I managed. And hey, you’ll manage too,” Wish Fish said. “You got thumbs and everything, you’ll do great!”

“Thumbs haven’t helped so far,” Kim said.

“Well hey, you’re closer to normal than I’ve ever been already,” Wish Fish said. “Pretty soon you’ll get rid of all the weirdness and fit right in.”

The words stung Kim, and Wish Fish tried to keep his tail from flopping happily. It was a delicate art, finding the balance between being friendly and confrontational. He needed to get close to Kim, and stay close, while still pushing her in the right direction.

“I’ve been there, Kim, so let me know if you ever need someone to talk to,” Wish Fish said. “You just come to the beach, I’ll find you.”

Kim looked down at the tiny fish in the waves. He was an odd creature -but no more odd than herself, when you got down to it. He was fully flesh and blood, at least.

“I appreciate it,” she said.

“See you around, Kim,” Wish Fish said, before turning and diving into the sea.

He swam the length of the beach, then curved under the edge of the artificial island. Undersea pods clung to the bottom of the island in clusters, and the Wish Fish wove his way between them, working his way into the center of one of the largest clusters, hidden from the light. Wish Fish rested among a rusty lamp, a bright blue stone, and the waterlogged hand of an ape. If he’d had lips, he would’ve smiled to himself.

It was about time a person took a fish’s bait.