Neil's Waiting Adventure!

“We’re waiting for the doctor, just waiting for the doctor.” Neil was singing a song because he was bored, and songs made him happy. Neil sang again, louder: “We’re waiting for the doctor, just waiting for the doctor...”

“Shhh,” Neil’s mother put a finger to her lips and bent down close to him. “We have to be quiet,” she whispered. “Some people are sick and want quiet.” Neil sighed a very big sigh, full of air. He bet he looked like a balloon. He stood up to look in the big window while he puffed up his chest with air, but his mother said, “shhh,” again and gave him a look that he knew meant, “sit down.” So Neil sat down with a thump, and a whoosh of air went out of the Neil balloon. His thump was as quiet as he could make it, but his mother looked at him again.

“I wish I wasn’t a little kid,” Neil thought to himself. “I wish I was like that fish. That fish in the big tank with all his fish friends. The blue fish.” Neil leaned towards the big tank of water and fish that was by his chair. What would it be like to be a fish?

Neil closed his eyes to dream about it. He could picture his fins and his fishy body and his fish friends swimming right beside him. He swam around in the big tank and all the people in the room looked at him and said that he was the best looking fish in the tank. He decided that he didn’t like being a fish in a tank and he played dead so he would get flushed. Sure enough, a nurse in a flowered shirt flushed him down the toilet and he floated out to sea!

The sea was bluer than the tank and much, much, much bigger than the tank. Neil the fish swam and swam and swam...but then he began to miss his fish friends. He began to miss everyone talking about how he was the best looking fish in the tank. Neil the fish could feel a single tear drop down his fish face. A bigger fish swam up to Neil and smiled at him, but it wasn’t a nice smile. Suddenly being a fish was kind of scary! The bigger fish began to lick his fishy lips and moved closer and closer to Neil the handsome blue fish...

“Okay, Mrs. Stiles, you may come in.” The nurse in the flowered shirt smiled, and Neil sat up and rubbed his eyes. His mother patted his head before she took his hand.

“You were very good about waiting, Neil. I’m proud of you.” Neil blinked his sleepy eyes very fast and looked back at the fish tank. He was glad to be a little boy, again. He was glad that he did not have to wait anymore.

“Bye, fish friends,” he whispered to them as his mother took him down the hall. “Be glad you’re in a tank!”


Word Count: 507
Plot: Neil learns how to wait