Riley The Dwarf Lantern Shark

Can you keep an eye on my car, please, mate? he said to the Sainsburys security guard. I’ll only be a few minutes.

And The Blood was drawn; Riley smelt it from all the way on the other side of town. He started to make his way there. Riley was a dwarf lantern shark, roughly the size of a human hand. Today, he was hungry. He hadn’t feasted in three days now. For a shark normally as prolific as him, this was a very long time.

He hadn’t always wanted to be a shark. Who would? When he was younger, he dreamt of being a lobster or a dolphin; he was always good at phinning. Exploiting the vulnerable: hardly every kid’s dream. Yet, here he was.

He made his way down Upper Parliament Street, passing by Casa Italian, passing by Pan Asia, passing by Peckish. Riley knew he had to be quick so put a certain spring into his swim. He felt confident he’d make it in time.

Meanwhile, in Sainsbury’s, Rajesh was in the cereals isle, also trying to be quick, in order to get back to his car. He’d been bitten before. Cheerios or Rice Krispies? He was feeling the pressure to make a rapid decisions. It was stressing him to the point that he was taking longer than he would have done were he not in a rush.

Riley thought about his mother. She was the one who’d always encouraged him to phin, to do something creative with his life; his father was less inclined. Three days after his mother’s funeral, Riley came home from school to find his phinning equipment shredded into a million little pieces. Learn a craft, he’d said, the world doesn’t need any more bloody dolphi-

SHIT! He’d missed his turn. He’d have to take a different route. Yep, up Broad Street and then down Victoria Street, that’ll be quickest. Since the incident, he avoided Victoria Street whenever possible, but any other route wasn’t going to get him there in time. Determined to stay focused, he started deep breathing.

Rajesh was finally on his way to the tills when: excuse me fella, I think you dropped th- Rajesh?! It was a friend from school. James Harrison. He didn’t dislike James Harrison, and in another context, this encounter would’ve been a nice surprise; yet, conscious of his car, he could barely concentrate on a word James was saying. Anyway, it was really nice to catch you, man, he closed, but I’m actually in a bit of a rush. I’ve left my car on a double yellow.

As Riley made his way down Victoria street, it all started coming back, as vivid as ever. Beyoncé playing. That vanilla-just-cleaned-car-smell. Her singing along, like she always did. Him looking at her in admiration, like he always did. How happy he was just to be out of the house. How even though they were doing the most tedious weekend-errands he didn’t care. He’d give half his gills for some tedious weekend-errands with his mother now. The pain was intense but he didn’t let it stop him or slow him down; he was too hungry. He persisted on, passing by the laundry shop they’d use on Mondays, passing by the book shop they’d spend so many Saturday mornings in, passing by the phin shop where she’d bought him his first narbal, persisting on, persisting on.

Thank you, have a nice day. Rajesh was on his way back out to the car. That Musky Bloody Smell was getting stronger and stronger in Riley’s big sharky nose. He could taste it. He started swim-sprinting. Rajesh put his hand on the car door and began to open it. Excuse me, sir, said Riley, can you come have a word with me over here please? It was too late.

But as Rajesh walked over, Riley felt a strange sense of clarity. What the fuck was he doing? He wasn’t a little boy anymore. It wasn’t too late.

Sorry. Don’t worry, said Riley. It’s nothing, honestly. I thought you were someone I knew. He turned around and started swim-sprinting again, even faster than before. He glid, throwing out as many of his sharp teeth as he could, he swam, and swam, persisting on, persisting on. One narbal, please.