Friday, March 20, 2009

Seafood Eat food

I felt like posting something, so here's a short little story I wrote a few years ago for the newsletter at work. I have a couple more involving these same characters, so if you like this, let me know and I'll post more in the future.

SEAFOOD, EAT FOOD
It was a perfect day for a Skipperson family outing. The sun was shining, but a gentle breeze kept it cool. There was even a meadowlark perched atop a downed cottonwood, singing for all the world to hear. Mr. Skipperson brought the minivan to a halt near the edge of Farmer Brown’s pond. A split second later Wally Skipperson bolted out of the rear door and headed for the pond. Mrs. Skipperson got out holding a picnic basket and started whistling a merry tune. It was like a Disney movie come to life!
“Father! Come take a look at this!” yelled Wally.
“Well, gee, sport! It looks like you’ve found yourself a jolly old bullfrog!” commented Mr. Skipperson.
“Please? Can I keep him pop?” pleaded Wally.
“Well…sure! Why not?” said Mr. Skipperson with a twinkle in his eye. “Go put him in the bucket and then let’s catch us a mess of fish for lunch!”
In two shakes of a lamb’s tail, they had caught a whole stringer full of sunfish. Mr. Skipperson picked up one of the little sunfish by the tail, tilted his head back, and held the fish right over his mouth.
“Golly, son, I’m so hungry I could eat these fish alive!” he said. Then he winked at Wally and tossed the fish back on the bank. “I’ll go fire up the grill! Be right back!”
As he was setting up the grill, Mrs. Skipperson skipped down the path to talk to him. “Oh, Wardley! You’re such a tease! You need to be a better example to little Wally…you know you’re his hero!”
“Yes, dear…but look, he’s just fine!”
As they turned to look at little Wally, their faces went as pale as death. Wally was lying on his back with his eyes closed…and a suspicious tail fin was protruding from his mouth! They ran over to him and realized he was not breathing…and sure enough a slimy sunfish was obstructing his airway! Mr. Skipperson grabbed the tail and pulled, but his fingers just slipped off the slimy fin! He wrapped his shirtsleeve around the fin to get a better grip and pulled once again. However, he realized that the sunfish’s spiky dorsal fin was just expanding and digging into Wally’s cartilaginous trachea!
“Move it, Wardley!” shouted Mrs. Skipperson. With that, she shoved Mr. Skipperson out of the way and moved in. She then whipped a letter opener and a straw out of her purse. With two quick movements, she performed a tracheotomy below the obstruction and inserted the straw. Seconds later, Wally started breathing through the straw while Mrs. Skipperson called 9-1-1.
And they all lived happily ever after.

3 comments:

  1. Humorous...She must be an amazing woman!!!!! Skipperson skipping...sets a light tone for your piece... Thanks for stopping by, Josh! Am in admiration of you and Michael...you both post so frequently! You are pro and prolific :-) (I'm a Saturday post-er) Best wishes for success with your new position! Cheers!

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  2. You've got to appreciate a little bankside surgery Macgiver style. Just think what she could do with a pair of pliers and a piece of candy corn.

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  3. Introducing myself, Josh. Following 'Sniffles' & Michael. Enjoyed your post very much and look forward to reading more stories.

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