a fish tale

I love a good joke but I don't tell them - I'm always too nervous about stuffing up the punch line. But I heard this one years ago and wrote it down - it's one of my favourites.

There were two prawns called Justin and Christian. They were just living their lives as prawns do but they were getting pretty tired of being at the bottom of the food chain, especially Justin who was slightly more ambitious than his mate Christian, so one day he saw Cod and said to him:

‘Cod, I am really fed up with being chased by bigger fish all day who just want to eat me. Is there anything you can do to help?'

Cod said 'Well as a matter of fact I have magical powers and I can turn you into a shark if you would like that’. Justin said ‘Wow that would be great, thanks’ and Cod turned him into a huge shark.

So, Justin went about his business enjoying being a shark and terrorising smaller creatures. He was having such a good time that he didn't notice he hadn’t seen his mate Christian for a while. He went to find him at a favourite spot where they used to hang out together but when he got there, Christian took one look at him and fled. Justin suddenly realised his best mate was terrified of him because he was now a shark. He couldn’t let that happen so he went to find Cod to ask him if he could turn him back into a prawn. Cod obliged and Justin went off happily to find his mate.

Justin couldn’t see Christian so as he neared the spot where they used to hang out, he called out to his mate ‘Hey, its me….where are you?’ but Christian, on hearing his voice swam away and hid under a rock. Justin went after him and yelled out:

‘Hey, it’s OK, I am a prawn again Christian, I found Cod!!!’

image: author, ballpoint pen drawing of a dream