Adam and the Giant Fish

Ophelia

On June tenth, the day of Adam's birthday, his parents excused him from his kindergarten class three hours early. He wasn't sure what they had planned until they pulled into the parking lot adjacent to the new giant stadium-like building, where massive banners boasted images of giant sharks with hundreds of teeth each. This was the new aquarium in town, where the only great white shark in captivity had recently been introduced. When his dad had found a spot to park, Adam started singing a song from school that he had learned a few weeks ago about sharks and whales. His parents smiled and looked at each other with love in their eyes.

Once they had handed their pre-purchased tickets to an employee at the door to the new record-breaking shark tank, they were welcomed to an ovular room, with glass panels all the way around. Families with strollers, grandparents, stoners, and nearly everyone in between lined the thick glass, impatiently waiting for the shark to swim close enough to admire its sixteen-foot body.

White streaks from the water in the glass danced on the black floor, making Adam feel like he was floating deep in the ocean somewhere far from his hometown in Ohio.

While they waited, Adam flagged down an older woman with a volunteer tag and asked about the name of the shark, to which she smiled and revealed that the shark hadn't been named yet.

They waited almost thirty minutes before hearing a sharp gasp, which was followed by a very brief moment of silence, and then squeals of excitement. A pointed tail oscillated rhythmically in the distance, and the figure of a giant fish was growing larger.

When the beast was close enough to expose its jagged teeth, it began to orbit the elliptical room. After making a few laps, it glided confidently back into the darker parts of the tank, where no artificial lights had been installed. As the crowd thinned out, Adam begged his parents to stay longer, hoping to catch another glimpse of the giant fish, but his father convinced him they would come back, and promised a stuffed animal from the gift shop.

On their way out of the glass room, Adam noticed a large digital "4000" blinking above the door and was opening his mouth to ask his parents what it meant, until the stimulation of the gift shop redirected his attention. He was now inside a massive bright area with marine blue paint on the walls that hardly matched the color of the water in the tank behind them. Hundreds of toys vaguely representing the shark lined the walls on every side of the room, and Adam spent a few minutes figuring out which would be the best fit for his bedroom at home. When he had settled on a little grey shark with a welcoming smile on its face, his father handed the cashier a ten-dollar bill and led his family outside. As Adam was walking back to his dad's Corolla, he decided that Ophelia was a nice name for both the sixteen-foot great white as well as the stuffed animal that was now tucked close to his chest.

...

Adam had planned out his eighth birthday party about as soon as he had walked into the glass room on his fifth birthday. Although Adam had gone to see Ophelia several times since that particular day, this visit was different. While the tank was generally closed from 1:00-3:00 each day, on Saturdays, visitors over eight years old were invited to witness Ophelia hunt a live seal. Adam, like many eight-year-old boys, admired dangerous animals and especially loved monsters; Ophelia had transcended the former to become the latter for Adam.

His parents were hesitant to take him - Adam had begun to show strong signs of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and they were concerned that a violent scene might leave an unfavorable and unshakable memory in Adam's head.

Regardless, at two o'clock on his birthday, Adam was accompanied by his parents and two friends from school. Becky and Thomas, Adam's friends, both looked a little nervous entering the giant shark tank, and when the group entered the elliptical room, their eyes darted back and forth like they were seals on the lookout for a predator.