
The fish and the shark
Once upon a time, there was a pilot fish who lived under the protective fin of a saw-toothed shark with her ten brothers and sisters. Other fish were scared of the shark and called him Gray Death. But the pilot fish thought differently. She ate the bloody crumbs from the shark’s binges and picked scraps from between his jagged teeth. She was sated and safe.
Over the months, the shark grew hungrier. And greedier. He started swallowing his kills whole, so there weren’t many leftovers. And he snapped at the pilot fish as she cleaned between his teeth. She had to work faster and faster to avoid being eaten. One of her sisters and two of her brothers were too slow. They ended up in the shark’s bulging belly.
Without enough food, the pilot fish grew anxious and dizzy. Her fins twitched and fibrillated. She became afraid to enter the shark’s toothy mouth. Two of her brothers, weak from hunger, gradually fell behind until they were tiny specs. She began watching passing sharks and their well-fed attendants with helpless envy.
One day, one of her brothers and two of her sisters swam after a huge, scarred nurse shark who left a trail of fleshy fragments in her wake. Now only the pilot fish and her littlest brother were left. In a way, she was glad. With only two of them, even the shark’s paltry leavings should have been enough. But they weren’t.
Ravenous, the pilot fish and her brother fought fiercely over the smallest scraps. Soundly defeated, her starving brother joined a passing school of minnows. At last, the pilot fish was alone with the shark. Her loyalty had been rewarded. Perhaps she could encourage him to eat bigger prey, so he would finally feel safe enough enough to share.
The pilot fish tried to lead the shark, swimming around his nose in pretty patterns. But he only snapped at her and thrashed his tail. Eventually, he ate himself to death, collapsing on the ocean floor. The pilot fish, desperate, took a dainty bite of his flesh but it was spoiled.
She swam in circles, orbiting his corpse. Somehow, she still couldn’t leave.
