The Odd White Out

Most shark species travel alone, even the newborn shark has no parents waiting for it to arrive to the ocean blue life it’ll have for sometime. Despite this, great white sharks travel are an exception since they travel together until a quarrel over food that comes to their attention.

Whale sharks are known to have unique spot patterns, similar to our human fingerprints,, not one whale shark looks the same, unlike the great white sharks who all look the same. That is all except Morgen, a great white shark with a peculiar black mark on his otherwise white belly.

This wasn’t the only thing that made him different from the great whites in his shoal however. His skin that should be rough like sandpaper was as smooth as notebook paper, although he was full grown, he was only ten feet long, he found the taste of dead whales repulsive as evident as swimming away from the group when they dined, and his sense of smell was mediocre at best.

Despite these differences, Morgen tried his best to fit in with his shoal, but they silently shunned him and he was quite used to it at this point. If he had eyebrows, they’d be furrowed from the heavy melancholy and the neglect he was receiving. Despite this, he kept moving forward.

One day, Morgen’s shoal were out hunting for whatever they could sink their razor sharp teeth into. Morgen was absentmindedly wandering around in his own little world, his blue eyes filled with awe and curiosity. He found out something else that made him different from the members in his shoal; he could see his surroundings in color!

Pretty soon, his shoal finished their breakfast. Having chunks of bloody whale meat in their rows of teeth, they swam off without Morgen who continued to wander aimlessly in the ocean admiring the colors around him. He then saw something glistening that caught his attention and swam towards it using his tail like a propeller. He then saw something strange; a tall fish with black scales and flippers like a seal.

The fish also seemed to have two strange things on its back and some kind of protection over its eyes. The fish was also in a prison with it shimmering from the morning sun. Without a second thought, Morgen swam over to the trapped fish to save it. Morgen began to bash at the silver bars repeatedly; startling the fish indubitably.

The fish then noticed the black mark on Morgen’s belly and its eyes grew wide in intrigue. Morgen had given up trying to free the fish with repeated head bashing. His forehead started to bleed; creating a dark red cloud made its way to his former shoal; only to dissolve before reaching its destination. Morgen saw the fish look at him; making Morgen incredibly uncomfortable like someone throwing salt in his eyes without warning.

“You’re a rather strange great white shark,” the strange fish commented, “you have a black mark on your belly that looks like a puzzle piece.” Morgen began to feel inferior, but didn’t say anything; not that he could. The fish noticed the sorrow in Morgen’s beautiful blue eyes and reassured the shark that he wasn’t trying to insult him.

“I think it makes you unique.” It said with a genuine smile on its face. Morgen’s melancholic expression turned to surprise then content in a matter of moments. Despite the compliment, Morgen continued to analyze the fish before him. Morgen swam around the cage to keep his oxygen in his body. The fish reached through the bars when Morgen continued to circle around the fish’s cage.

What made Morgen perplexed was the fish’s fins. They didn’t look like the fins at all! Morgen began to doubt that this fish wasn’t a fish at all! Regardless, the shark remained curious and let the imposter pet him albeit reluctantly. The imposter began nervously stimming before their hand even reached Morgen’s skin.

They then were surprised to feel Morgen’s smooth skin. The duo became fast friends despite their differences. “I was expecting your skin to be like sandpaper,” the fish imposter, who turned out to be a human commented, “I did a lot of research before I decided to do this.” Morgen continued swimming around, but listened to his new friend contently. Morgen’s wound was already gone like it was never there.

As the two bonded together, the remains of the dissolved blood cloud reached the leader of Morgen’s shoal and caused it to go berserk and thrash about like an irritated bull seeing a moving cape. The leader, Fintan, swam toward Morgen and his new friend using his back fins as propellers.

Morgen knew it was his fault, but decided to clash with his former leader in order to protect his new friend as a precautionary gesture. He bit into the neck of his former leader like a traitorous vampire. The two fought aggressively with Morgen’s friend, Sander, watching in awe; wishing that waterproof cellphones existed. It then donned on him and he pulled out his waterproof disposable camera and took pictures of the brawl from the safety of his cage.

Morgen received a lot of bites and slaps, but he didn’t surrender, he and Fintan continued to clash for sometime. Suddenly, Morgen flinched. He saw a familiar silhouette and got distracted giving Fintan the upper “fin” to bite down on Morgen’s neck much to Sander’s horror. The injured Morgen looked back at Sander before blacking out.

Three months after the brawl, Sander was at his school telling his students the story about Morgen so that the shark was never truly forgotten. As he talked about the shark, he squeezed his stress relief keychain a bit. “Sharks have a bad reputation,” he said bluntly, “but they don’t need to have one.” His statement caused his students to exchange looks and murmur amongst themselves.

Sander set up his camera to the projector and showed off the pictures he took. “As you can see, sharks are more likely to attack each other than attack us humans, but that’s not the fact I want to discuss. Like us, sharks are unique and special, they should be treated as such. After all, my friend saved my life by giving up his life for mine.”

Sander paused briefly. “I could never truly repay a friend like him, but I decided that we dedicate this week to him. From the eleventh to the eighteenth during the last days of summer school.”