I don’t play a lot of jokes on people I think practical jokes are stupid, mean and usually don’t end well. But in this instance I couldn’t help myself.
Back in my banking days a co-worker, (Kim) was given a betta (Siamese fighting fish) from one of our customers. Kim kept the fish (who we will call ‘fish’) on her desk and grew quite attached. One fateful day Kim asked me to look after Fish while she went on vacation. I don’t know what came over me. Two days before Kim was to come back to work I found a fish bowl exactly like Kim’s, I found the same blue gravel the same plant the same everything. Then I got a fish, Kim’s fish was red, I purchased a blue one. On the day of kim’s return I exchanged the red one with the blue one. Kim went right to fish as I pretended to count the money in my teller drawer. It took about 15 minutes before Kim came running across the bank;
“Brian what happened to Fish?”
“Nothing, why? is everything okay?”
“He is blue!”
I didn’t really have a plan. I figured she would assume Fish had died and I tried to cover it by replacing it with an imposter only I was too stupid to buy another red one. But something in the way Kim looked and sounded told me that Kim thought it was still Fish, so…
Me, “Yeah, and?”
“When I left he was red!”
“Really? how long have you been gone, two weeks?”
“Brian, Fish was red! is there something wrong with him?”
Blink! “Uhm no, I thought he changed while you were still here, I guess he changed colour after you left.”
“He changed colour, why is he sick or is that normal?”
Now I have to be fair, Kim is an extremely intelligent woman and somebody I greatly respect. Clearly however this was not her strong suit. “Kim, Fish is fine all Betta’s are blue I thought you knew that. They start out red but turn blue almost overnight when they reach a certain age.”
I noticed that the rest of the tellers vanished into the vault, they obviously couldn’t keep it together as the conversation progressed, I also realized I had nowhere for this scenario to go and it had to come to an end. Kim had bought the story hook line and sinker and the look of relief on her face was priceless. But all I could think of was how to back out of the situation without making Kim look stupid. Making her look stupid was the furthest thing from my mind. I figured she was going to be mad at me for trying to cover up the fact that Fish had died, I could live with that as Fish was fine but this reaction while even more funny, had the potential to cause some hurt feelings.
“Fish is fine Kim”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I am sure, wait one second I will prove fish is just fine.”
At which point I got the real fish and showed Kim. The next line was spectacular.
“Brian! You also got a fish!”
“Well yes I guess I did, this however is your fish, the blue one your desk is an imposter” There was a pregnant pause while Kim’s brain kicked into gear and the gales of laughter that came from her was music to my ears. She laughed till the tears were pouring from her eyes, she saw it all, she saw the funny part of the joke, she saw how stupid she must have sounded and how funny that must have been. She took it the way it was given a humours, harmless joke among friends.
I write this for a few reasons. 1) is I think it is funny. 2) I watched a YouTube video of a magician making a fool out of his audience and was reminded of why there are people who don’t like magicians. To my magic friends, please respect your audience, they are there for you, shouldn’t you be there for them? 3) We would all be better off if we didn’t take ourselves so seriously.
By the end of the week each teller had a fish at their window. We loved them, we looked after them made sure the bowls were always clean, they gave the bank a really nice atmosphere. The customers loved them and the regulars would come in and check on each fish. Some of the tellers allowed the customers to name the fish. I however named mine ‘Stick’. People would ask me why his name was stick. I just told them to think about it. Usually as they were leaving the bank they would start to laugh. They got it! ‘fish stick’
We had the fish for about 6 months or more when the powers that be told us we could not keep the fish at the bank. We tried to fight the decision, customers called the manager and district manager telling them how much they liked the fish, but those in power were not hearing any of it, and in the end we each took one home. Stick, like all our pets became part of the family and lived for a good three years. Today, a good four years after his passing my wife and I still fondly remember Stick.
PanningForGold 