Topsey

Topsey was worried. His best friend, Eel, had come to him to discuss a problem. His youngest son, Little Eel, had been teasing and making fun of one of the new fish in the neighborhood. The new fish was named Angler Fish. She did look different than most of the other fish. She had LONG, sharp teeth in her mouth. They looked very scary. Eel thought that Angler Fish did look different, but he told Little Eel not to tease her. Eel wanted his son to learn the lesson that Topsey taught his students: Be kind to one another. Little Eel had been teasing her and asking her why she had so many teeth in her mouth. She tried to tell him that she had just been born that way. Little Eel found out that she was a slow swimmer and figured that maybe it was because her teeth were so heavy. She had a large, round body and a little tail. Little Eel saw that he could swim much faster than Angler Fish, and he had gotten in the habit of swimming fast circles around Angler Fish.

He would say, “Ha, ha, catch me if you can. Hey, Angler Fish, why do you have all those teeth in your mouth?”

Then he would say, “Hey, Angler Fish, you look like you have a bunch of toothpicks stuck in your mouth! You look like a big box of toothpicks!”

Another time he said as he swam circles around Angler Fish, “Hey, Angler Fish. Stick a pick in me if you can.”

Little Eel’s brothers and sisters always swam around with him, but they did not tease Angler Fish like Little Eel did.

They always said, “Little Eel, leave her alone.”, but Little Eel kept on teasing her.

Angler Fish had come to visit Mermaids Clinic. She came to ask Mermaid if there was anything she could do about her teeth. She knew she had too many teeth, and they were heavy, but she didn’t know what to do about them. Mermaid would talk to Angler Fish everyday about her teeth and try to figure out why she had too many teeth in her mouth. Every day Mermaid would make Angler Fish go out and swim for exercise. This was why she was always out swimming with the other sea creatures, and that is when Little Eel would tease her. One day, Mermaid was talking to Angler Fish in the clinic.

Suddenly, Angler Fish said, “Mermaid, I wonder how far away that boat is?”

Mermaid paused a moment, and said, “What are you talking about?”

Angler Fish said, “I can sense the vibrations in the water with my teeth. They tell me there is a boat on the way.”

Mermaid waited and waited. After several minutes, she began to feel very faint vibrations in the water, so she knew there was a boat on the way. Soon a very fast speed boat passed overhead.

She said, “Angler Fish, I think you have very special teeth. Your teeth are so sensitive that they can feel vibrations from a long distance. I think they are vibration detectors. I think they might even be supersonic vibration detectors.