Gill, Nemo, and the tank gang and all others not in the preceding list belong to Disney and Pixar. The others- Stroke, Mr. Skimmer, Niches, Chang, and Tanachi are mine, mine, mine, mine, mine…

            AFPI (if you read chapter 7, you know what that stands for.) #1 I don't know if they have game shows in Australia. I would assume they do… they probably don't have Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune, and the fish wouldn't know about these shows, but I just use it to describe the shows they watched. #2 Yeah, shooting rocks at the Aquascum to break it has been done a hundred times before, but…I thought of it. #3 The pieces of the harbor fence were tied together, but they might be nailed together too… #4 My "secret" about Jacques is all wrong, since if he lived in the ocean near there, why would he be French? But I don't remember him saying in the movie where he came from.

Chapter 8: A Fork in the Waterway

            All of our lives seemed to settle down and return to a monotonous routine of discussing complex topics with simple knowledge and waiting patiently for the next TV special. I managed to keep my head out of the mush by writing random phrases on the side of the ship with whatever gunk I managed to scrape off the very bottom under the rocks. With the horrible Aquascum sucking up all my natural resources, I had to take whatever I could get.

            The Aquascum was a major concern to me. If only the new technology wasn't there. The problem was, I couldn't find any way to sabotage it. This was possibly why Phil installed it in the first place. Although, how could he have known that we sabotaged the filter? In his world this is known as "bad luck" or "everything I touch just breaks!" Also in his world, it is a common fact that fish are stupid and Houdini purposely jamming up the filter was simply unheard of.

            I amused myself daily by watching quiz shows, such as Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. I beat all the contestants and laughed at them.

            Bloat and Gurgle were giving me strange looks. "How do you know all this stuff?" they asked me several times.

            "I know how to read," I simply answered.

            Sometimes, if I were in the mood, I would compete with Peach. She didn't care if I beat her most of the time. We had a fun time guessing.

            The game shows weren't on every day, or Phil just refused to put it on that channel at a certain time. I wished I could jump from the plastic volcano again and steal the remote control, but it probably wouldn't work underwater. I would suspend it with wire just above the surface and we could jump up and push the button when we wanted to change the channel. Then, I imagined everybody fighting over the remote and getting so riled up, they would knock it over, into the water and it would short-circuit and zap us all. I was beginning to have foresight for disasters such as this.

            Giving up on my remote control invention, I then began focusing on a way to sabotage the new Aquascum. So far, there was no way to get into it and hit its inner workings. I relied on Peach to tell me everything from the manual she could remember, and there wasn't any useful information. Finally, one day, I just decided to shoot rocks at it for fun.

            One time while I was shooting rocks, Deb approached me from behind. "Do you have a cold, Gill?" I turned around with a rock in my mouth and she began nodding. "Oh, I see now." The only thing she was seeing was my back, occasionally ricocheting forward and expelling a rock at the Aquascum. From an outside view, it did look a lot like I had been sneezing.

            After about twenty rocks I shot at it, I began to see a dent in the side. I hoped it would at least hinder it. A few minutes later, the normal red beam shot out of its center and did its rounds. The voice that came out was scratchy and garbled. At least I had succeeded in breaking the voice. As days went on, I began to see it breaking down even more. Eventually the filter hole stopped working, and since there was nothing else to clean it up, Gurgle and Jacques started going crazy talking about the "new gunk".

            "Gill broke the Aquascum," Deb explained to them.

            Bloat gave me a strange look. "I thought you said that all you wanted to do was get the little guy out and you didn't care if we never escaped."

            I gave them my best aquatic shrug. "Well, if you can find a way out, then why not try it? At least this one doesn't involve someone being shot out of the plastic volcano."

            They gave me knowing looks. I knew this would work, and…it did. I seemed to be reliving the events of the days just before the little guy escaped and I tasted the second success of my life. This was the last chance we would be getting. At first, I thought that maybe Phil would simply buy another Aquascum, but that was impossible. He was pretty loaded, but not that rich.

            As I suspected, a few days later, he looked into the tank and got a rude awakening. "What…? That Aqua-thing was supposed to do the cleaning for me, unless it broke down…" He popped the top off and reached in to check the Aquascum. When he saw the dent, he sighed. "What is wrong with the tank cleaning devices lately?" he yanked it off the side, a little too forcefully and made us tip a little. "Now I got to go through the whole thing of putting the fish in bags and scrubbing out the algae…" He made it sound like such a laborious task. Well, excuse me Mr. Giant with two hands. I can do more than him, and I'm only a scarred Moorish idol a fraction of his side with half a fin missing.

            Anyway, my heart leapt when Phil swept down into that water, bagging me, and then Bloat, Deb, Bubbles, Gurgle, and lastly Peach. He could save her for last since she didn't need as much water to survive. I led the way out the window. It was a long drop from the trees, but the bags easily bounced along gently without breaking. The biggest challenge came in the crossing of the street. We had to quickly push ourselves across the tar before the red light changed and we were squashed. This is why we decided to go across individually. I went first, followed by Bloat, Gurgle, Bubbles, Deb, and lastly Peach. I was worried about her, since she's a starfish and is much slower than any of us. Thankfully, she made it across in one piece, although complaining about the length of traffic lights.

            As soon as she plopped into the water beside us, we all gave up a cheer. At first, I could scarcely believe what had happened. This was what I had been waiting for all this time- two years. I had waited two years for this, and it passed by so quickly. A moment of silent gratitude, amazement, and confusion passed among us.

            Our peace and solitude was broken by none other than Bloat, the rudest in the brotherhood and master of the bananagrass. This was when all murk and chaos broke loose.

            "Precisely," Peach added. "Gill, why didn't you think of this before?"

            I loved that girl, but she always had a habit of hitting my nail right on the head and making me feel like an idiot. Why hadn't I thought of this beforehand? Here we were, finally out of the tank and free in the harbor, but we were stuck in plastic bags! How were we going to get out of the crinkly spheres before we ran out of fresh oxygen and suffocated?

            Bloat puffed up to ball form, but his spikes weren't enough to penetrate the sides of the bag. Gurgle whacked against his plastic, Bubbles went crazy and pushed it everywhere, Jacques tried to poke it with his pointy legs, Peach suctioned the sides, Deb stared at it absentmindedly, and I stabbed it with my long snout. None of our efforts seemed to do any good.

            "What are we going to do?" Gurgle cried. "Just float out to sea?"

            Everyone turned and looked straight at me. "Well?"

            "What?" I cried. "Why are you all staring at me?"

            "You're the leader," Deb reminded me. "You always get us out of situations like this."

            My eyes widened. They were once again looking to me for guidance, and I had no guidance to give them.

            "C'mon, big guy," Bloat urged me. "Think!"

            I shivered and turned around. "Well I can't think very well with you all staring at me and pressuring me like that." Frantically looking around, I set upon the side harbor barrier. It was made out of wood. Normally, when the humans put pieces of wood together to make things, they used a nail to hold them there. Sometimes, if a human made a mistake, a nail would be sticking out of the wood the wrong way. This end was very sharp. Maybe there was this sort of nail sticking out of the harbor siding. This was the only hope I had, and we had to at least try it. I floated along the siding, and the others followed like mindless drones.

            Finally, Peach spoke up. "Hey, where are we going?"

            I wouldn't answer until I thought I knew where there was a nail. Suddenly, I saw one up ahead and jetted straight for it.

            When the others caught up, Gurgle immediately began complaining. "Could you please tell us what's going on?"

            "This," I said, pointing to the protruding nail end. "May help us get out." I backed up and carefully positioned myself so that the top of the bag would slam into the pointy nail. I might get my "beautiful" filamentous extension ripped off, but it was better than dying. At last, with all my strength, I zoomed forward, as fast as my ripped fin and my cramped tail would let me. Just as I predicted, the nail drove right into the plastic. I pulled and pulled in the opposite direction until a hole appeared in the top of the bag. Once there was a hole, I pushed and pushed, making the hole bigger and bigger, until there was enough room for me to poke out.

            My body hit the outside water with a small splash. For a split second, I felt like whooping with joy, but I suddenly realized I had to get the others out of their bags before they died. The water wasn't very pure, but it felt so much better than the stale tank water. I let it filter through my gills for a moment before shooting up to talk to the others.

            "You are a genius, man," Bloat happily told me. "I'm sorry I ever doubted you."

            "Alright then," I replied. "For your unfaltering loyalty, brother Bloat, you may go first." He rolled himself over and I lined him up with the nail. "Okay, now keep low and swim fast, straight for that nail. Once it catches, keep pushing until you rip a big hole in the top."

            With a small push, the big brown puffer sped along straight for the nail. He was going so fast, it made a hole upon impact. That's the problem with being a Moorish idol. We're not built for speed.

            Only a few minutes later, I was helping Deb line up for her big escape. She was afraid that this would hurt her sister, and I had to keep reassuring her that both of her would be fine. When the nail hit the top of her bag, she was so light she almost ricocheted backwards. With a little more push, the nail at last ripped its hole and she popped out beside Bloat.

            Jacques came next and this time I realized that we needed a bigger push for smaller members. Bloat and Deb joined my initial push, and his bag broke upon impact.

            Bubbles screamed when we pushed him into the nail, but he was delighted to get out and explore the different bubbles of the ocean.

            We didn't have to push Gurgle as much as we thought we would. For a little fish like him, he had gigantic fins and was capable of moving at very high speeds. I can be fast, but nowhere near as fast as him. I'm a bigger fish and need more propelling power. This is hard with natural thin Moorish idol fins, but with half of one missing, it's even harder.

            Finally, popping Peach's bag was no trouble. The only problem was that she immediately began falling when she popped. Thankfully, Bloat and Gurgle caught her as she dropped.

            At last, we swam down into the harbor. I looked back at the last few plastic bag remains spiraling down to nothingness. We were free at last. We had tossed off our chains, I had picked the lock, and now we could run away from our prison to the bright, beautiful world beyond.

            Now, Bloat and Peach turned to look back at me. "So where are we going?" Peach asked.

            Smiling, I answered. "We're going wherever we want to go."

            "What kind of answer is that?" Gurgle argued.

            This was when it hit me. I was completely on my own now. I could leave them at any time. The problem was, I couldn't leave them. What would they do? They'd have no idea where to go and what to do. They'd probably either be eaten or scooped back up by a fisherman. It was my duty to save these poor lost fish…wasn't it? This was exactly how I had thought in the past, and hadn't I been wrong? An argument began in my head, as if I suddenly had a split personality, and the two personalities were waging war. But, the second one argued, I only had to adjust my purpose because of Nemo, now that he was gone, wouldn't my purpose be to save these fish? No, the first one returned the ball, what about me? I had a definite feeling that my home was not here with this group of fish. If I stayed with them, it was most likely a permanent stay. Another volley- where would I go? If I didn't stay with them, where would I go to find a home? Back to the reef?

            At last, a soft voice speaking next to me interrupted my mental tennis match. "Et ensuite, vous tournez gauche…"

            "Huh? Jacques?" I stared over at the little shrimp in Deb's fins. He seemed to be muttering something in French. "What did you say?" I turned to face him.

            He sighed and finally muttered, "And then you go left…"

            "Go left? Are you giving directions?"

            At last he hung his head and spoke to us as a group. "Um, well…yes. They're directions to the rock area where I used to live."

            "Where you used to live?" Bloat was in on it now. "You mean you didn't come from a store like us?"

            Now Peach looked a little bit up from Bloat and Gurgle's fins. "That's right, he never really told us where he came from. We just immediately assumed that he came from a store. He could have actually come from the ocean like Gill and Nemo." She looked over at him. "Did you?"

            Jacques took a deep breath. "Oui."

            "Why didn't you tell us before?"

            He shrugged his little front legs. "I just forgot that's all."

            Then, Peach smiled. "That's great! You can lead us to your old home and we can all live there together!"

            "What's it like?" Bloat asked. "Is it spacious?"

            "Is it clean?" Gurgle added.

            "Oui, oui, both of zees."

            Deb smiled and hugged the little shrimp closer. "Than what are we waiting for? Let's go there!" She shot off, holding him in her arms, with him giving her directions. Bubbles zoomed off after her. Gurgle and Bloat followed suit with Peach hanging between them. Suddenly, she yanked on their fins and they dragged around.

            This sudden revelation made everything remarkably clear to me. The tennis match was over, and it was a draw. I knew now what I had to do. It was time for us to split, time for another section of my life to come to a close.

            "Gill, aren't you coming with us?"

            "Nah," I told her. "I think it's time we went our separate ways. It's been great guys."

            The others all turned around in shock upon hearing this. "He's leaving?" Deb said quietly. "After all he did for us?"

            "He's sick of us," Gurgle whispered. "He wants to get away from us now that he can."

            That wasn't the case, naturally. (Well maybe a little. It's not that I don't like them, I just don't want to be with them the rest of my life.) "Maybe we'll meet up again sometime!" I called to them. "Bye, everyone, and enjoy your new life!"

            The others all lifted their fins or front arms and moved them about in a circle.

            I began to swim away in the other direction. As I went, I decided to turn around and give them one last wave with my pure side. We waved and waved for another couple of moments.

            Then the group of fish that had been my life for the past two years slowly disappeared into the depths, heading for their own destinies. What happened to them still remains a mystery. Although I like to think that they reached Jacques' homeland and are living there right now in peace. Just like I liked to think that Nemo got home to his father, even though I had no way of knowing what had happened. Maybe Gurgle never got over his fear of germs, maybe Bubbles never got over his infatuation with bubbles, and maybe Deb never found out that her sister was really her reflection. As long as they were free and happy, none of that mattered. Tucking them away somewhere in my heart, I turned and began swimming.

            I had not tasted the wonderful ocean water in so long, and I suddenly wondered why I hadn't appreciated it more when I had lived here. I had taken it for granted that I would always be in this clear water. I took a long, deep breath, and a calming and soothing feeling passed through my body. Now, I still had no idea where my destination was, but I knew that wherever my place in the world was, I belonged in the ocean. I began swimming away from that place, as far away from that place as I could. It all felt so familiar and it felt so right. This was freedom. This was my freedom to go on a long-distance swim to who-knows-where and do whatever I wanted on the way.

            At last I saw the boat bottoms fade away and my hope soared.  Surely I was now headed far away from the harbor and far away from this city.

            A half an hour and fifty bubbles later, I stopped in my tracks. It seemed odd that I had been swimming for so long and the murky pea-colored water didn't seem to be getting any less thick and green. Just where was I anyway? I dove a little deeper into the sea, spiraling down and into the unknown depths.

            As much as I had developed into a sharp, alert adult Moorish idol, I still was unable to notice the camera device submerged near a rock on the side.

            A voice over an intercom clicked on. "Hey…what's that, an angelfish?"

            I quickly glanced around in a panic. There were a few other fat, grayish fish swarming around me, but they didn't seem to be speaking to me. "Um…hello?" I asked them. They gave me funny looks and swam away.

            A different voice now joined in the conversation. "No, that's a Moorish idol. What's it doing in the sea around here? We better get it in before something happens to it."

            At last, I noticed that the voice was coming from beside me. After being in a tank with sounds vibrating off the panels and little girls creating sonic booms, I had a hard time finding the source of sounds. (I know you think I'm just making excuses, but it's true.)

            Anyway, when I at last turned around, it was too late. A huge net was sweeping down, a big mouth of doom. I yelled and tried to jet away, but as I mentioned before, fish like me aren't that fast. The net scooped me up like a handful of jacks. Immediately, I began to swim downwards with all my might. It was no use, since this net was ten times the size of Phil's and operated by machine.

            "No!" my heart screamed. I had at last returned to my home, just to be imprisoned once again. Would I never get to find where I really belonged? Would I never find a place as welcome and comforting as the ocean? I needed a place that provided that beautiful soothing feeling ocean water gave me. There was no place on land that could give me this. I closed my eyes and let the tears come. I was now convinced these idealistic dreams were just that- dreams. I was the one that helped the others escape from human clutches, and this was my reward? Whatever happened, I thought fate had sealed it that I was to die, oppressed in a box.