A Children’s Night Time Story – the Stinky Fish Lobsters
“Fred,” said one lobster to the other. “I am so hungry, I could eat a group of groupers.”
“Well, Stan,” said the lobster named Fred, “if you had eaten breakfast, maybe you wouldn’t be so hungry.”
“Yeah, I know,” replied the lobster named Stan, “but I would give my left claw for something to eat right now. It feels like months since I have eaten.”
While they were walking, a pleasantly stinky smell wafted through the water to them. Stan reacted right away, saying “Oh Fred, do you smell that stinky fish? Let’s go find out what it is.” Without waiting for Fred to reply, Stan started walking in the direction of the stinky fish.
But Fred was afraid of what Stan might do, so he hurried to catch him before he could make any bad choices. For instance, just the other day Stan had made a bigger lobster angry and both Stan and Fred had to scurry into a small hole to keep the big lobster from getting them. There was no knowing what kind of trouble Stan might get himself into when he was this hungry.
Soon they both came to a large wood box with lots of rope around it. Inside the box was the smell of the stinky fish. Stan was just about to go in the box when Fred yelled to him, “Stan, don’t go in there! You’ll get stuck! Aunt Mertrude went into one two days ago and she told me she was stuck. While I was talking to her, the box lifted up to the sky and never came back.” Fred’s eyes were bulging off his eyestalks as he talked to Stan, but Stan did not seem to notice.
“Fred,” said Stan, “can’t you smell that stinky fish? I’ve just got to have him. I’ll be all right. Besides, if I get stuck, you can help me out.
So even though Fred warned him, Stan climbed into the box. After searching for the stinky fish, though, all he could find was something tough that he couldn’t eat. He could smell the stinky fish that wasn’t there, and he became even more hungry, so he decided to leave.
When he turned around to leave, however, he couldn’t get out. “Fred,” he shouted, “I can’t get out! And there is no stinky fish!”
Fred was worried, so he decided to get help from some other lobsters. He hurried as fast as he could to his family’s home to get some friends and relatives to come help. When he returned to the box, it was gone, and so was Stan!
Fred stood flexing his claws and was just about to start crying, when he saw something floating down towards him from the sky. At first it seemed about as small as his claw, then it seemed to grow in size until he recognized Stan floating down with his eye stalks drooping. He didn’t seem to notice he was falling, or to care where he landed. Fortunately he was going to land near where the box had been.
Stan finally settled to the bottom and stirred up a cloud of silt. After the silt had settled, he finally noticed Fred waiting patiently in front of him. “Hi Fred. I see you made it back.”
Fred moved his eyestalks close to Stan and asked with wonder in his voice, “What happened Stan? When I got back the box was gone and so were you. Then I saw you floating down from the sky. What happened?”
Stan looked down at the ground and shook his eyestalks back and forth. “They threw the small ones back.” He lifted his eyes to Fred and stared for a few seconds. “You wouldn’t believe it,” he continued, “There were lobsters from all over the place up there. Then they threw the small ones back. You’ll never see me go into a stinky fish box ever again Fred. Never again.”
Fred was glad his friend was back, so he decided not to say anything else about the box. It seemed that Stan had learned his lesson. “Come on Stan, maybe we can find some stinky fish somewhere else today. There are always more stinky fish in the sea.”
