250 — Cultured

I belong to a cult. I've been cultured. Like a pearl.

We are the water people, and we stay in the river. It is our River of Life. Naked and happy, we wade chest-deep or skip merrily knee-deep or tread water when we're in over our heads.

Our leader, the Great Guppy, sings to us from his holy gills.

Behold! The waters purify. The waters hydrate. They put out the fires of hate and enmity. We hold no dead skin to our bodies, for they are debrided away by the currents. Verily I say unto you, you are all living tissue. Without the cleansing waters, the dead cells' debris would accrue until you be hidden from the Great Guppy.

"Oh, Great Guppy," I shout. "What of the wrinkles of our palms and soles that arise from submersion?"

Those be not wrinkles. They are the lines to be followed to your hearts. Without them you falter, heartless, and damned.

"Oh, Great Guppy," I implore you, "can you smite our enemies who pollute our fair waters and soil us with oils, detergents, and paint thinners?"

Those are rites of passage. They're an embrace of the modern world. Gills to air sacs. And by-products of profit and greed. And let it be known that greed is evil, but profit is fairly good.

"Oh, Great Guppy," I beseeched, "you confuse your school. Of what use can we make profit? Even if fairly good?"

Oh, you of little faith! You are drowning in your ignorance and your water-logged pride. Keep yourself wet, I command thee, and swim with the current!

"But the current rips! It drags us out to sea to join the throngs of infidels. We plead with you, our great teacher of our school, to save us from the torrential whirlpool of terrestrial progress!"

My followers, dunk your heads and you will know that I am always with you, to swim with you against that foul current, to nuzzle amongst the anemones who sting not us but the foul creatures who would hook us.

Yet, alas, I have that thing, and if I don't swim now to catch my ferry, I will miss my private jet to the fund-raiser.

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AUTHOR'S NOTES:

For Friday, September 6, Day 250 of the 2024 Story-a-Day Challenge

366 WORDS (without A/N)

Accompaniment photos were AI-generated but I ain't no Pisces.

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THIS CHALLENGE FLIES ON, 366 HOOKS AT A TIME.

There are currently three surviving, free-swimming, Vocal free-birds still afloat in the 2024 Story-a-Day Challenge:

• L.C. Schäfer, (Flounder)

• Rachel Deeming (Croaker)

• Gerard DiLeo (Bait)