Marky-Mark the Smiling Shark

“Hi Marky-Mark! What brings you in today?”

“Hi Dr. Fin. Thank you for seeing me. I just feel really sad and down in the dumps.”

“It’s okay, Marky. We all have bad days sometimes. Why don’t you Just take a deep gulp in and start from the beginning.”

Marky-Mark swallowed the water slowly and began. “Well, Dr. Fin, I don’t think anyone likes me.”

“What on sea would ever make you think that Marky?”

“Well, I’ve been having some crazy encounters lately with other fish. I don’t know if you can even call them “encounters”. It was like they couldn’t get away from me fast enough.”

“Oh, Marky, I think it’s all just in your head. I think you’re making up some stories again, my dear shark friend.”

“But Dr. Fin, I most certainly am not. Let me tell you about my day. I think you’ll see that it’s not just me.”

Dr. Fin deeply sighed and smirked. “Alright Marky-Mark. Please, tell me about your day.”

“Okay, so it was a beautiful start to my day. I was merrily swimming along my happy little way. The sunrays on the rippling water made the ocean bed glow. The sea weeds were peacefully swaying in the flowing current. I couldn’t help but smile.”

“That sounds very nice, Marky. What’s the problem then?”

“Well, that’s when it started. I was smiling and I looked up to see a stingray. I widen my smile. I really wanted to make a new friend, and then I said, ‘Hi!’ and that stingray tried to stab me with his butt-sword! At first, I was in complete and total shock! How dare they?! I just wanted to make a new friend. I tried to shrug it off and just swim away.”

“I see how that can be upsetting. Maybe you scared the stingray. Maybe he just didn’t know you were there.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s possible, but then it happened again. Well, not the same, but sort of. I started to swim in the same direction I was going, but I happened to look down because something caught my eye. I saw a beautiful star. I thought maybe it fell from the night sky. I put on my best smile and said, ‘Hey little buddy! Did you fall from the sky last night?’ The star went poof! It was vanished in a cloud of sand. Again, I was alone.”

“Well, maybe the star has magical powers?”

“Hmm… I never thought about that, but my day didn’t end there. After searching for the star for a few more minutes I carried on my journey. Up ahead I saw a jelly! I had never saw a jelly before, and I had a burning question that I just had to ask. I put on my best smile and swam on over. I said, ‘Hey! Is it true that peanut butter taste good with jelly?’ The jelly didn’t say a word. It simply lifted its tentacle. I thought it wanted a high-five, but when I went to give the jelly a nice smack, it stung me and darted away! I was almost in tears by now. This is where I started to think maybe it’s not them, but it’s me.”

Tears started to weld up in Marky-Mark’s eyes.

“There! There! It’s okay, Marky. Pull yourself together.”

“Oh, but Dr. Fin, it still doesn’t end there. So, I swam along yet again, this time not so happily, but then I saw a creature with eight legs. Eight legs! I just had to know what this creature was. I put on my biggest smile yet, and then I swam on over to this strange looking thing. Before I could even open my mouth to say a single word, this odd-looking creature inks all over me and then it glides away. Who does that?!”

“Marky, I think I may be catching on to the problem here,” Dr. Fin said with a kind smile.

“What’s that Dr. Finn?”

Before Dr. Fin could answer, a large black shadow casted upon them. Nervously, both sharks looked up to see a big, no, not big, a huge, nope, not huge either, but a ginormous whale! It was at least the size of a bus!

Dr. Finn and Marky-Mark started to shiver and shake. The whale started to widen its smile. It had huge, white, sharp teeth, but before it could say a single word, Dr. Fin and Marky-Mark each let out a terrified scream as they disappeared into the sea.