{"id":1741,"date":"2014-07-29T11:17:01","date_gmt":"2014-07-29T10:17:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/?p=1741"},"modified":"2015-04-02T14:20:04","modified_gmt":"2015-04-02T13:20:04","slug":"extract-from-fish-boy-by-chloe-daykin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/?p=1741","title":{"rendered":"Extract from Fish Boy<\/em>
by Chloe Daykin<\/h6>"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

In the zone<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0Since 1914 over one thousand people have disappeared in a 500,000 square mile zone, into nothingness, nowhere, off the radar, off this earth.\u00a0 In1964 the zone was called The Bermuda Triangle<\/i> and the name stuck. I think we call it that because we feel better for calling it something.\u00a0 Like names make us feel in control, like we understand stuff we have no idea about at all.\u00a0 It could be called the Goopatron or the Shidozzle Pyramid. It could be a black hole, a portal to another galaxy, an alien forcefield.\u00a0 The only truth is that we\u2019re just guessing, that we don\u2019t actually know, we don\u2019t know anything at all.<\/p>\n

This is what I wrote in my Unexplained Mysteries of the World<\/i> report in black Berol Fine liner in Mrs. Ahira\u2019s Humanities class at 2.24pm.\u00a0 And this what I\u2019m thinking right now, in the sea, when a Mackerel swims up to my to my face, blows bubbles into my Vista Clear Mask goggles and says…<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Kezdodik<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/i><\/b>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Kezdodik<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/i><\/b>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Kezdodik<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Run<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/i><\/b>What do you do if you find a talking fish?\u00a0 You leave it and run.\u00a0 And then you feel bad and come back.\u00a0 But then it\u2019s gone and you don\u2019t know if it was real at all, or maybe you imagined it?\u00a0 And now you\u2019re standing on the beach and there\u2019s no one else around.\u00a0 The sun\u2019s going down and your towel\u2019s gone missing and your clothes and your new Nikes.\u00a0 Maybe Daniel Watts took them or maybe it was the fish.\u00a0 All these questions make your head hurt.\u00a0 You want to run back into the sea to make them go away cos the water\u2019s like a plunger on your head and sucks them out, like carbon dioxide into trees.\u00a0 But you can\u2019t because tea\u2019ll be ready, cos the sun\u2019s gone and it\u2019s Tuesday, which means pie and chips night and who would want to miss that?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m Billy Shiel and these are my questions cos this is me.\u00a0 Right here, right now, on Stepson beach.\u00a0 You can see me through the cliff railings.\u00a0 I\u2019m the one with the goosebumps.\u00a0 The speck on the sand with the blue trunks.\u00a0 People call me Fish Boy.\u00a0 My skin goes up and down like the waves.\u00a0 My mind goes in and out like the sea.\u00a0 They say I\u2019ve always got my mouth open, that I ask too many questions.\u00a0 But what\u2019s wrong with that?\u00a0 Did I say they call me fish boy?\u00a0 Ha ha that\u2019s just a joke.\u00a0\u00a0 Actually fish have really good memories, even goldfish.\u00a0 They can remember sounds for up to five months.\u00a0 You can train a fish to swim back to you for its dinner, from up river, from the sea.\u00a0\u00a0 You just play the sound and its comes right back like a boomerang.<\/p>\n

So now I\u2019ve got to run, before my chips get cold, up the cliff path, past Zadie Eccleston from class 7RH\u2019s panorama-seashell-window, through the Hawthorn hedge with spikes like razors, over the \u2018Look Out For Frogs\u2019 sign and into the back door like the wind, like lightning, like the fastest no shoes and practically naked boy you\u2019ve ever seen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hover<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/i><\/b>I\u2019m in the kitchen in exactly eight minutes twenty seven seconds.\u00a0 My second best without shoes time.\u00a0 I can tell cos of my National Geographic watch, which is accurate above and below water up to ten meters.\u00a0 Dad\u2019s standing at the table looking at me in my blue trunks.<\/p>\n

\u2018You know the rules\u2019 he says.<\/p>\n

\u2018But the chips Dad?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018No trunks at the table\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Can I just put them in the oven?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018What, the trunks?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018The chips\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Right, I mean no.\u00a0 I mean get a towel.\u2019\u00a0 He\u2019s already got the sauce on his, he\u2019s picked his knife and fork up.\u00a0 He\u2019s on a hover.\u00a0 I wish I was on a hover, I\u2019m not even on a sit down.\u00a0 I\u2019m on a drip and shiver.<\/p>\n

\u2018What about a tea towel?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019m not having your never you mind on my tea towel,\u2019 Dad takes a pride in his tea towels.\u00a0 He gets them for his birthday, for christmas. His favourite one says \u2018I\u2019m too sexy for this tea towel.\u2019\u00a0 It\u2019s hung up in the kitchen, next to the one from the Heavy Horse Centre that says \u2018Keep calm and eat cupcakes.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Where\u2019s your clothes?\u2019 he says.<\/p>\n

\u2018I don\u2019t know.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Where\u2019s your shoes?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018I don\u2019t know\u2019, he looks at me right in the eyes.\u00a0\u00a0 \u2018Where\u2019s Mum?\u2019 I say.<\/p>\n

\u2018In bed.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Again?\u2019 He looks away.<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019ll get your dressing gown son\u2019, he says and ruffles my hair.\u00a0 He goes upstairs and gets my grey fleecy one.\u00a0 I\u2019ve got three dressing gowns but the grey one is my favourite.\u00a0 I\u2019m 12 and it\u2019s actually size thirteen to fourteen but I like the way the extra length covers my hands.\u00a0 Sara Jenkins said that fleece is really made from plastic bags and I wonder how plastic bags can be so cosy. I can feel the heat prickling down my arms.\u00a0 Fleece is the best, it\u2019s like putting on a radiator.<\/p>\n

Dad makes me a little table, with a knee tray.\u00a0 We eat the chips and pies.\u00a0 They\u2019ve gone a bit cold.\u00a0 Neither of us says anything.\u00a0 I eat mine like David Attenborough, award winning broadcaster and naturalist.\u00a0 Everyone loves David A, he\u2019s the best, he knows what needs to be known.\u00a0 He\u2019s asked all the questions and got all the answers.\u00a0 He knows what to be scared of and what not to be, when to get in the water and when to get out.\u00a0 My fork ducks under the pastry like it\u2019s going in a bat cave, through the fissure, into the cathedral chamber, like it\u2019s exploring for the first time. The bats fly out of the crack and away. My fork becomes the red tailed hawk, my knife the prairie falcon.<\/p>\n

From the chopper David shouts against the wind, \u2018the hawk needs all of its aerobatic skills and powers of concentration to snatch one of the confusing multitude.\u2019 I prepare for the kill.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u2018Don\u2019t play with your food son,\u2019 Dad says.<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019m not playing, I\u2019m exploring.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018If you discover any meat let me know.\u2019<\/p>\n

I think, if my fork finds a piece of steak first no one will ever know about the fish and it\u2019ll all be ok and Daniel Watts will give me my Nikes back.\u00a0 In my head I ask David Attenborough what he thinks and he leans into the rough desert scrub and whispers in his dead calm voice \u2018and now the female is leaving the nest<\/i>.\u2019\u00a0 He\u2019s always switched on to nature is David.\u00a0 He\u2019s a professional.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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