Marlene's Treasures
My mom and I went to the beach the other day to look for "treasures" as she put it. I think she harbors a fantasy about finding the Hope Diamond washed up on the shore of Lake Ontario. Judging by what was actually washed up on the beach, she shouldn't hold her breath. We did find some interesting pieces of drift wood. My mom found a plastic penguin, which she took to be a "sign" since she works at a pediatric office which uses a penguin logo.
We also found a dead seagull and a lot of dead fish.
These were not ordinary dead fish. When the fish were alive, they would probably be the length of my arm or longer. In decay, they were nothing more than scales and skeleton... and teeth.
The teeth freaked my mom out.
"What fish have teeth?!?" she demanded, addressing her question to the remains on the beach.
"I don't know...maybe a muskie or some sort of carp," I responded for the fish.
"That is so gross." She said. " Stick your finger in the fish's mouth."
"I'm not sticking my finger in a dead fish's mouth!" I yelled.
Later that evening, as my husband and I sat down to watch
Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang, I received a phone call.
"Did you find out the name of the fish with teeth yet?" It was my mom. The idea of the fish with teeth was eating away at her.
"No, I forgot to do the web search."
"Well, I need to find out." She was a woman obsessed.
"Put Dad on," I said. "I'll give him the directions to do an image search."
According to my father, my mom was dissatisfied with his image search for the fish with teeth. Last night, at dinner, she brought it up again.
"There are barracudas in the lake," she said to my sister and her friends.
"NO, there isn't," I said.
"How do you know?" my mom retorted. "There could be barracudas."
"No, Mom. Barracudas are salt-water fish."
"How do you know? You never found out what lived in the lake. They are barracudas," she replied, sipping her coffee.
For more information on the fish in Lake Ontario, visit http://www.lakeontario.org/.
You will notice that barracuda ARE NOT listed on the website, but salmon are.
