Through Devonian Eyes

Episode 1:


It was a gloomy gray and rainy August afternoon. Angel, the silver coloured gold fish floated in its so-called-aquarium overwhelmed with boredom. It was too bored to swim. “I need a bigger house.” it thought. Its owner was a miserly teetotaler. He was too miserly to buy a fish bowl for Angel. He had been gifted a bottle of Vodka by his phoren settled brother who had visited him last month. “What do I do with this bottle?” he thought. He was lonely. Being a teetotaler, he made himself a cup of tea and then put on his trademark kurta and strolled to the nearest pet shop.



The dogs were too noisy for him. The cats were too mean. Birds were too chirpy. Venomous snakes were not available over-the-counter. And the availability of Anacondas was restricted to the Amazons.

“How about a gold-fish?” asked the pretty girl at the counter.

“I’d like to see a sample.” said the teetotaler.

The girl took him to the left end of the shop where there were a lot of aquariums with all kinds of fish. She showed him samples of goldfish. A particular goldfish caught his attention. Because unlike the other gold-fish, it wasn’t golden. It was silver.

“Why isn’t this gold-fish golden?” he demanded.

“Because it is an albino” replied the scared girl.

“I will buy it” he said. “What is its name?”

“It doesn’t have one. You can choose whatever name you want.” the girl said.

The teetotaler was too unimaginative to think of names. “Suggest one!” he barked.

“Uh…Angel?” she suggested.

“Okay” he said. He paid her and brought Angel home.
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At Home:

‘Where do I put the fish?’ he thought. He was too miserly to buy an aquarium.

Suddenly his eyes fell on the bottle of vodka lying on his kitchen shelf.

‘Why waste it?’ he thought.

He couldn’t drink it because he was a teetotaler. But wasting food or drink was against his principles. After all, there were too many people in this world dying of hunger and thirst.

So, he opened the lid of the vodka bottle and put Angel in it.

Angel felt herself falling into an intoxicating liquid. Baffled at first, she felt strangely good the very next minute. She wondered what this wonderful fluid was. She swam to the top of the bottle and read the back of the label affixed near the neck. The letters looked inverted from the inside. But she could read them nevertheless. V-O-D-K-A. “Vodka!!” Angel realized. She danced merrily in the exotic fluid. She was interrupted by her irritating teetolaer owner who was tapping the bottle from outside.

“Nice fishey…..look at me fishey….Angelllll…..” he smiled revealing his crooked teeth.

“Damn b****……” Angel thought. She wished he was a little more handsome and good-natured. After all, it was a question of her life.

You might wonder how the life of a fish can be correlated to the handsomeness of her owner. Well, Angel had a secret. She was no ordinary fish……..

(to be continued in Episode 2)