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The Sharks Smile

A story of friendship and revenge!

By S. Hileman IannazzoPublished 3 years ago 10 min read
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The Smile Of a Shark

S. Hileman Iannazzo

Shark Challenge Entry

7/28/2021

He used to work there. For most of his adult life, Jeff had been in charge of the water quality and appearance of the largest tanks the aquarium had. These tanks used to house dolphins, penguins, etc; but Jeff’s favorite was a single, 30 year old, great white shark who lived alone in a tank out back. Jeff enjoyed his work and had planned to retire from “Great Bay Aquarium'' when he turned 65. That was before the once popular fish museum had become a sad, deserted, haunted place, with empty exhibits and graffiti on the glass that used to separate the animals from the public. They’d been forced to shut down, when activists and other “People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals” stepped in. There were whistle blowers, raw footage, sciencey statistics and guys like Leonardo Decaprio, putting zoos and aquariums on full blast for the public to see. Laws and regulations were tightened. Attendance dropped as more bad publicity was leaked. It started with eliminating the dolphin breeding program Great Bay had been famous for. The coastal aquarium was successfully producing dozens of baby dolphins a year, to be sold off or well trained to “perform” for the rubes in the stands. Jeff knew that most of the aquarium's exhibits were “harvested illegally”. He didn’t like it, but he was getting paid to take water samples and keep an eye on Grady.

Grady, an enormous great white, drew big numbers, and was a crowd pleaser in his prime. If one were so inclined, one could ‘feed the shark’ for a nominal fee. This was of course when Grady was much younger, healthier and smaller. He’d jet around the tank gobbling up the fish heads and fins folks paid ten bucks to throw over the side. As Grady grew, his tank shrunk. The window of opportunity for the marine biologist to move Grady, or better still, release him to take his chances in the Atlantic, closed quite some time ago. Sharks are rather fragile, and hypersensitive to stimulus. The stress of being lifted and moved via crane and truck would likely kill him. Instead they did nothing. Management shut down the exhibit and lied to the press about it.

Jeff had been looking after Grady for twenty years before the place went bankrupt and the other animals were sold off or relocated. The property was neglected and in disrepair. Weeds overtook the impressive grounds and there was a chain link gate to keep the squatters out. Faded caution tape and broken locks allowed for desperate homeless people to move in. Eventually the police stopped trying to keep it free from vagrants. The mayor secretly hoped the place would burn to the ground. It was an eyesore and a painful reminder that their great city once embraced the “unethical” treatment of water creatures. It was a huge draw on the city’s purse strings and an insurance nightmare. There were no developers interested in buying the place, and the family that owned and exploited the animals at Great Bay, filed bankruptcy and disappeared.

Jeff hadn’t even collected his first unemployment check before he was filled with guilt and wild curiosity. He drove over to the desolate skeleton of the aquarium. He was hoping Grady had passed away quickly and mercifully. It was, to his surprise, when he made his way through the halls, and reached Grady, that the shark was very much alive. Jeff tried to flip the tank lights on, but the power had already been cut. He used a flashlight to examine Grady as best he could. He knew that even in the dimness the shark's eyesight was keen. He went back the next day with two buckets of chum and watched the fish eat feverishly. After that, with nothing else to do, Jeff returned to the aquarium daily, delivering food to the great white, and sitting on the edge of the tank. Jeff would let his feet hang over, dipped in the water, he’d occasionally use his toes to rub the top of Grady’s head. The fish would stare at Jeff with the eye closest to him, as if to say thank you. Jeff tried to help Grady. He’d spoken with some of the guys down at the pier, but they were either too scared to handle a shark of that size, or they lacked the equipment. Jeff had even reached out to the gang at PETA, and surprisingly they swiftly informed him they could not legally intervene and it would be best if he just left Grady to die. He called on the former owners and tried to bully them into helping the shark, but they politely hung up on him. Jeff did the only thing he could do, he kept Grady’s belly full. There was no point in testing the water quality, Jeff knew it was garbage just by looking at it, and there was not a thing he could do about it.

Everyday Jeff returned to the aquarium. Ducking under the pointless chains and ignoring the KEEP OUT signs. His morning routine was the same everyday. He’d drive down to the pier in his old pick up truck and he’d walk from boat to boat, chummy with certain fishermen and captains, they’d give him injured seals and useless tuna’s. Jeff would bring them to work, and dump them into Grady’s tank, which was murky and overgrown with algae. The shark had grown so big he could no longer turn his body inside his watery prison. Grady was the one exhibit no one had bothered to relocate, moving a shark of his size was expensive and time consuming. He’s too old, they said. Too big. Too violent. And so, at the end of the last day the staff were on hand, they simply flipped all the lights off and left Grady to die.

For months, Jeff spent his mornings keeping Grady company. Eventually, with each visit, Grady seemed thinner, he was barely eating and his eyes were dull and lifeless. Jeff knew that Grady’s lifespan, which should have been 60 or 70 years, was coming to an end much sooner than that. Because he’d been caring for Grady since he was a pup, it was with a heavy heart that he watched the once robust animal slowly wither away.

One morning, when Jeff arrived carrying a rather plump seal who had died in a fisherman's net, he saw that hooligans had discovered Grady’s home and were desecrating it. Jeff was disgusted by the thought of this majestic animal dying in the confines of an undersized tank, while suffering further humiliation piled on by bored junkies and high teenagers.

Jeff went home, to pick up a few things, and then he returned to Grady’s tank late in the afternoon, planning to spend the night guarding the shark from vandals. He sat for a long time, absently rubbing Grady’s head with his feet. He dozed off, then he woke to the sound of voices echoing in the hallway. He gripped the aluminum baseball bat as he stood up to face the doorway.

The teenager was drunk, tattooed and pierced, and so was his girlfriend. He was slurring his words when he said to her “toldja there was a live shark in here” Jeff stepped backwards into the shadows. “I toldja” he said again with a cackle. The girl's laugh was shrill and it echoed in the tank room. She used the free standing stairs to climb to the top of the tank. “Stupid fish don’t even know how to swim” she yelled down to her lover. Grady had allowed himself to float up to the top, his dorsal fin broke the surface of the water. From the dark corner of the room, Jeff watched as the teenage girl began to spit into the tank, he was horrified when she dumped the contents of her beer next. The tattooed boyfriend had joined her on the platform and was leaning over to piss into Grady’s home. The two of them were laughing and using their Iphones to “pose” with the weakened and dying great white shark. Jeff was about to step in, lifting the bat high to his shoulder, he took a single silent step before he saw the glimmer of life return to Grady’s eye. Jeff was sure that if sharks could smile, Grady was grinning like a fool. He quietly retreated, content to watch.

The hoodlums were leaning tremendously close to the surface of the water, snapping photo after photo, talking about hashtags and Tweeting. From his hiding place Jeff saw Grady’s gills working faster than they had in weeks. The teens had no reaction time when suddenly there was an awesome crash in the tank. A huge splash of water blasted each of the teenagers. In a heartbeat, the boy slipped, startled, and fell face first into the murky den. The girl, who had been giggling, pointed at her friend and was genuinely enjoying watching her boyfriend try to scramble up the glass walls and out of the tank . “You dumbass” she managed to say, before, with great force, Grady bent his body and forced his head to break water. In a flash the girl went from having two arms to one arm and one bloody stump. She fell backwards, the blood was pouring out of her at an alarming rate, she crumbled to her knees, screaming and crying while too much blood escaped her body and she began to bleed out. She was trying to use her cell phone with her remaining hand, but Jeff knew she wouldn’t get service down here. Ignoring the girl who was bleeding to death a few feet away, he turned to watch with great satisfaction, as the mohawk kid with all the piercings was struggling to pry Grady’s mouth open, to escape the hold the shark's enormous bite had trapped him in. Jeff stepped forward with his flashlight aimed at Grady, who was violently swinging the boy's lifeless body to the left and to the right. Jeff was indifferent as he watched the vandals die horrible deaths. He barely glanced over at the girl, who was silent and still now that her body succumbed to spontaneous amputation of her left arm. He turned his attention back to Grady, who had spit out what remained of the teenager's chewed and shattered body. All that was left was a blood soaked leather jacket with bits of flesh clinging to it.

Jeff smiled and Grady did his best to swim in the tight space of water, he did manage to wag his tail like a dog greeting his owner at the door. The gore that had once been two drunk teenagers covered the floor of the platform, the metal of the stairs, and an arm, clad with wire bracelets and a class ring on the third finger bounced on the water's surface. The whole incident was over in minutes and Jeff was confident that even if he had cared enough to step in and help those kids, he would have failed. Instead, he sat himself down, kicked off his shoes, and used his feet to congratulate Grady. He considered euthanizing the shark with a few well placed rounds. And then he reconsidered, deciding that nature would take Grady soon enough. He spent the night there, dozing off and on, and when he woke at dawn, he pulled on his boots. He looked all around the platform, at the carnage, remembering what horror had taken place, and he chuckled. When he turned to say goodbye to his old friend, he saw at once that the great white shark had died sometime during that night. Jeff felt his heart break a little, but felt no remorse for the two dead kids, as he walked to the doorway. When he spared one last look at the animal, he saw that in fact, sharks could smile, and in death, Grady’s teeth were bared in a devilish smirk.

Fin.

Short Story
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About the Creator

S. Hileman Iannazzo

Writers read, and readers write.

I write because I enjoy the process. I hope that you enjoy reading my work.

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