A Strange Coincidence

How rearranging one's life can influence the future.

Pus was an octopus, and a bored one. He needed some action in his life. Em and Matt had shortened his name, almost adopted him. It never happened. Same old, same old swimming around in his tank. The two biologists were fun to watch. They weren’t married, not even close. Naming Pus was the only thing they had in common. They liked playing what if. It gave them something to do. Really? They were just two marine biologists working together. “You’re moving things again?” Matt asked.

“We got some new piranha. Some fool put them in with the goldfish. I put them in a separate tank. I think it made them mad at me.” Em waved at Pus. Pus waved back.

Matt started polishing windows. There are a lot of windows in an aquarium. He had to move the tanks around. Pus studied the operation. A lightbulb went off in his head. You see, Pus wanted to get to know Lucy. She flirted then ignored him. Female octopuses sometimes eat their male paramours during that process. Matt had to be careful. At least this wasn't boring.

Lucy had actually followed him last night from tank to tank. He’d barely gotten away. What if he moved the stuff in the tanks around. He’d know the easiest pathway of escape in case he needed it.

That night, when Em and Matt were gone, Pus tested his idea. It worked. He’d gotten close enough to Lucy to tap her on the head. Boy, had he been brave. It impressed Lucy, but she chased him anyway, because that’s what female octopuses do when they want a snack. She’d given up half way through the maze he’d created. Smart, too. That impressed her even more.

In the morning when Em and Matt showed up for work, all hell broke loose. “Geez, Em. Sneaking in at night to confuse me? I don’t even know which tank is which by looking at them. Good thing they’ve got labels. Wait. You didn’t switch those?”

“You’re making fun of me. You know I didn’t do this. Why did you come in and destroy the perfection I’d made the day before?”

Matt’s jaw dropped to the floor. “Hey. We can’t fight like this. We’ll both lose our jobs.”

Em studied Matt. “Did you just say our?” He had included her. Matt was thinking of her future as well as his own. When had that started? She thought about his seeming obsession with cleaning tank windows when she was around. Did Matt secretly care for her?

Making up was the easiest thing Em had ever done. She’d been about to bite Matt’s head off. He’d been so sorry for impulsively assuming she’d been rearranging things in the tanks that her heart went out to him. She found herself apologizing for getting mad at him. It strangely felt like some kind of courtship dance as he gently kissed her on the lips after making up. “Thanks for understanding.”

Pus looked on, studying and learning. Touching Lucy on the shoulder wasn’t very romantic. He had to do better. He’d been watching Lucy a lot, too. Hey, wasn’t she always rearranging things in her tank?

Pus had thought it was a way to keep him off balance, make it harder for him to get to her to do his mating dance. Now, he realized that wasn’t it at all. Lucy liked seeing her home decorated in new ways.

That night was a busy night for Pus. He left every tank alone but his own. That one, he rearranged to look just like Lucy’s. When the female octopus chased him back, she was stunned.

Pus didn’t tap her on the top of the head. He enfolded her in his arms just long enough for a kiss. He could tell that she liked the surprise look of seeing her home away from home. It was all the magic required to spend the night together getting to know each other as only new lovers can.

In the morning, Matt thought he was having double vision problems. “I thought I just cleaned your tank,” he told Lucy. Pus came out and waved while floating next to her, safe as a bank deposit in a locked vault.

“Come here and look,” Matt urged Em as she came through the aquarium door. Em came over, gawked, and she pressed her nose right up against the side of the tank.

“Looks like we need only one tank for octopuses,” Em said, rubbing her nose.

“You’ve got a smudge. Let me help.” Matt tripped over some of the stuff Pus had thrown out his tank the previous night. He landed right on the nose of Em. Their lips met and lingered.

“You have good taste,” Em chuckled, lips still pressed against his. The kiss became a tender embrace.

Pus looked on, thinking the couple did pretty good, having only two arms apiece. He watched as Matt put a ‘Closed For Repair’ sign on the outside window of the aquarium door. Monday’s were the slowest day of the week. Em needed help arranging furniture in her new apartment she was moving into, and the windows needed washing.

Contest Prompt

A bored octopus starts rearranging the decor of the other nearby tanks in the aquarium at night when the aquarium is closed — and unintentionally creates a love connection between the two marine biologists assigned to figure out what is going on.