My youngest son and I were in the waiting room of his speech therapist. There's a fish tank there and I've always encouraged him to count the fish in it. When we first started coming here in May, it was a way to get in a little counting practice and it was hard for him. Watching him count them on this day, I was thinking about how easy it had become for him to count several fish.
He counted and got seven once, eight another time, and then seven again, perfectly reasonable considering the fish were moving in and out of their foliage. I came over to confirm which was the right number. This time, we both counted six, which seemed strange.
"Where is the big one?" my son said.
"Hmm, I don't know," I said, while casually looking for the four inch long gray fish that we had both seen darting around the tank a minute ago.
"He's down! He's down! He's out! Look! Look!" my son said, jumping up and down and pointing behind the fish tank.
And sure enough, that fish was on the floor, jerking and twitching pitifully, halfway behind the fish tank's table, with his head sticking out beyond the table's edge.
Now it was my turn to jump up and down and point. I knocked on the receptionist's glass, gesturing excitedly and babbling something along the lines of "We have to save the fish. Get a Tupperware. Get something to put him in. He's out. He jumped out!" She looked confused but joined me quickly. I grabbed a business card holder from the counter, dumped the cards out, and prepared to bravely scoop the fish up in it and return him to the water.
The receptionist continued to look confused until she figured out where my son was pointing, then said "He really jumped out! I can't believe it! He jumped! Wait, I have a net!" She opened a door under the tank, found the net and scooped him up, while I opened the tank lid for her to drop him in. He was saved.
Shortly after the excitement, the dentist, who our speech therapist shares an office with, came out, along with the receptionist and other staff members. Everyone crowded around my son, congratulating him and calling him the fish hero. They found the hole in the lid that the fish had jumped out of and covered it up. We all talked about how strangely like the movie "Saving Nemo" the fish's actions were. But mostly, we fussed over Jacob and told him how great he did. The dentist gave him a little prize and thanked him over and over.
Later he told the story to my mother. She nodded and listened, but I could tell she thought he was making up a fantasy story. He is a child who does a lot of living instead his head, and often makes up tales about his stuffed and plastic animals. But this time, his heroics were true, an adventure in the unlikeliest of places.
I'm proud of my little fish hero.
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