Humor, they say, is healing. Humor can also carry hidden messages and metaphors, should we allow our brains to function beyond the shallow and often inane substance of an entertaining tale. The following story has some age, is entertaining, laughable but mostly it quite nicely qualifies as a tall tale and a damned lie. However, if as I say, you allow (that is if you have control of) your brain to function beyond the normal abeyance most find adequate, you just might discover hidden meaning. I mean not to upset your day.
Clarence Merrywether was paddling his canoe on a small but deep pond, mostly inaccessible to human traffic; only to those most compelled to get there. The morning was cool, quiet and the water calm with a glowing mist just above the water. The angle of the morning sun gave the mist an eerie depth giving pause as to what might be beyond. Clarence knew the pond well.
There was not another soul to be found. It was as though Clarence was the only one left on the planet. That soon changed.
Clarence stroked his paddle on his right side, never breaking the water, barely causing a ripple. He wished not to disturb the silence he so enjoyed. From somewhere within the depths of the water, a brook trout, of no more than 6 inches, jumped up and landed in Clarence’s boat.
Surprised, as you can image anyone would be, Clarence carefully got his hand around the feisty fish and gently returned him to the water. Before Clarence could resume his stroking posture, the same fish once again bounded from the pond and landed in the boat.
This time Clarence thought carefully and decided that fish must not be happy living in the pond. So, he placed the trout and some water in a bailing bucket Clarence kept in his boat and took the fish home.
Clarence became quite attached to that fish, so much so that he really didn’t want to leave the fish. As a matter of fact, he so much adored this little fish he decided to name him Tommy; Tommy Trout.
Clarence wasn’t content to just let the fish swim around in the tank he devised for him, so each day he would take Tommy out of the water hoping that he would get used to being out of the water. That way he could enjoy his company better and in a more human way.
Months passed and during that time Clarence taught Tommy how to live beyond the confines of a water-filled tank. It was quite amazing as Tommy learned to breathe, walk on his tiny little tail fins, he came to Clarence when he was called and was most fond of Clarence scratching him behind the head and occasionally to stroke his slender belly. He also learned to eat human food, his favorite being fried grouper.
It got to the point that Clarence and Tommy were together all the time. If Clarence went to town, Tommy would ride in the basket on the front of Clarence’s bicycle. Clarence and Tommy became icons of the small town nearby. People would gather round anytime the two would make an appearance, fascinated by the entire spectacle.
One day Clarence decided to go for a bicycle ride and so he readied everything and prepared the front basket for Tommy. The two peddled down the old dirt road that led toward the Miller Farm. Clarence knew a short cut that took them through the woods and over Alder Stream. There was a narrow, wooden bridge to cross and when Clarence and Tommy got to the bridge, one of the planks was missing from the deck of the bridge.
Thinking not much about it, Clarence sped up his peddling, knowing full well it would not deter him from his mission. But when his front tire hit the space between the planks, the resulting bounce of the bike flung Tommy from the basket and he landed in the brook and drowned.
Tom Remington
