Three Fishes
Once upon a time, there were three fishes. Their names were Very-Thoughtful, Thoughtful and Thoughtless.
Very-Thoughtful, the leader of the group, was a smart and cunning fish. He always excelled in whatever he put his mind to and he never was easily influenced by bad decisions.
Thoughtful, although not as smart, was still a relatively intelligent fish. He always thought things through, and weighed the pros and cons of every situation before he made decisions. However, sometimes those decisions weren't always the right ones.
Finally, there was Thoughtless, the weakest-minded fish of the group. Who knows why they kept this guy around. He had the attention span of a nematode, he was always getting himself into trouble with sharks and such, and he never thought about a decision before making it.
The three fishes did everything together. They were friends in their class of the school of fish and graduated together. So they had a lot of memories together. Very-Thoughtful would help Thoughtless with homework, Thoughtful would help Very-Thoughtful with the lady fish, and Thoughtless was there because he always was. He didn't offer much to the group in terms of smarts or skills, I mean he was Thoughtless after all. But they liked him and he had always been there.
One day, the three fishes were swimming towards a city. Very-Thoughtful felt weird and told the other two that they should swim back home. Civilizations have people that hunt and eat fish like them and it would be too dangerous for them there. It was a better idea to just go home.
However, Thoughtless had to go running his mouth again, "But the city is so cool! Our home is boring. Don't you guys want to see what's in store there?"
Thoughtful weighed both of the options carefully in his head, but in the end, he went with Thoughtless' idea to keep swimming towards the city. In his mind, what was so bad about a new experience?
Very-Thoughtful was hesitant but he couldn't let his friends keep swimming alone. Who knows what kind of trouble Thoughtless could get them in.
When they got to the city, they immediately regretted their decision to keep swimming. A huge net suddenly surrounded Thoughtless and Thoughtful with Very-Thoughtful watching from the outside, helpless and not knowing how to save his friends.
Suddenly, he had an idea. If he distracted the fisherman, maybe he would try to catch Very-Thoughtful and his friends would have a chance to escape. He began to flail and splash around in the water and the fisherman took his net from Thoughtful and Thoughtless as he tried to catch Very-Thoughtful.
Very-Thoughtful didn't even hesitate. He knew that the fisherman could easily catch him. But he cared so much for his friends, he was willing to risk his own life so that they could be free to live. The risk was worth it.
This was their chance. The second the net was gone, Very-Thoughtful shouted "Swim away! Swim and don't look back!" The three fishes might as well have been Michael Phelps with the way they booked it out of that city.
Author's Note: This story was an expansion on the Three Fishes story in Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt. There wasn't any real story change. I just wanted to expand on the story and make it a little more interesting by describing the fish more and giving the situation more detail. I gave them a history as friends with Very-Thoughtful being kind of the group leader. Since fish travel in schools, I decided to make them friends and had them 'graduate' from fish school together. It makes the story a more relatable one. Every friend group usually has the smart guy, the average guy, and the not-so-smart guy that everyone loves anyway. So this fishy friend group was no different. Each had their role and I wanted to expand on their relationship. I also wanted to give Very-Thoughtful more of a hero role at the end. In the real story, he saves his friends from the fisherman's net in the city that they swim to. But in this version, I wanted to let the reader know that Very-Thoughtful knew that what he was doing was dangerous and could easily become the fisherman's dinner. He was just willing to die if it meant that his friends could live. He was the hero of the story because of his love for his friends.
Very-Thoughtful, the leader of the group, was a smart and cunning fish. He always excelled in whatever he put his mind to and he never was easily influenced by bad decisions.
Thoughtful, although not as smart, was still a relatively intelligent fish. He always thought things through, and weighed the pros and cons of every situation before he made decisions. However, sometimes those decisions weren't always the right ones.
Finally, there was Thoughtless, the weakest-minded fish of the group. Who knows why they kept this guy around. He had the attention span of a nematode, he was always getting himself into trouble with sharks and such, and he never thought about a decision before making it.
The three fishes did everything together. They were friends in their class of the school of fish and graduated together. So they had a lot of memories together. Very-Thoughtful would help Thoughtless with homework, Thoughtful would help Very-Thoughtful with the lady fish, and Thoughtless was there because he always was. He didn't offer much to the group in terms of smarts or skills, I mean he was Thoughtless after all. But they liked him and he had always been there.
One day, the three fishes were swimming towards a city. Very-Thoughtful felt weird and told the other two that they should swim back home. Civilizations have people that hunt and eat fish like them and it would be too dangerous for them there. It was a better idea to just go home.
However, Thoughtless had to go running his mouth again, "But the city is so cool! Our home is boring. Don't you guys want to see what's in store there?"
Thoughtful weighed both of the options carefully in his head, but in the end, he went with Thoughtless' idea to keep swimming towards the city. In his mind, what was so bad about a new experience?
Very-Thoughtful was hesitant but he couldn't let his friends keep swimming alone. Who knows what kind of trouble Thoughtless could get them in.
When they got to the city, they immediately regretted their decision to keep swimming. A huge net suddenly surrounded Thoughtless and Thoughtful with Very-Thoughtful watching from the outside, helpless and not knowing how to save his friends.
Suddenly, he had an idea. If he distracted the fisherman, maybe he would try to catch Very-Thoughtful and his friends would have a chance to escape. He began to flail and splash around in the water and the fisherman took his net from Thoughtful and Thoughtless as he tried to catch Very-Thoughtful.
Very-Thoughtful didn't even hesitate. He knew that the fisherman could easily catch him. But he cared so much for his friends, he was willing to risk his own life so that they could be free to live. The risk was worth it.
This was their chance. The second the net was gone, Very-Thoughtful shouted "Swim away! Swim and don't look back!" The three fishes might as well have been Michael Phelps with the way they booked it out of that city.
 |
| 3 Fish (Blogspot) |
Author's Note: This story was an expansion on the Three Fishes story in Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt. There wasn't any real story change. I just wanted to expand on the story and make it a little more interesting by describing the fish more and giving the situation more detail. I gave them a history as friends with Very-Thoughtful being kind of the group leader. Since fish travel in schools, I decided to make them friends and had them 'graduate' from fish school together. It makes the story a more relatable one. Every friend group usually has the smart guy, the average guy, and the not-so-smart guy that everyone loves anyway. So this fishy friend group was no different. Each had their role and I wanted to expand on their relationship. I also wanted to give Very-Thoughtful more of a hero role at the end. In the real story, he saves his friends from the fisherman's net in the city that they swim to. But in this version, I wanted to let the reader know that Very-Thoughtful knew that what he was doing was dangerous and could easily become the fisherman's dinner. He was just willing to die if it meant that his friends could live. He was the hero of the story because of his love for his friends.
Comments
Post a Comment