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the periscope
 There are things a fish cannot understand, of course. Still she has a curious mind. She looks for adventure. Ascents to the surface may be worth while at times. Some scatterbrained fly might appear, calling for a closer look. At times the light of the skies will do. That light often has such splendour, with its changing moods and stories. Different stories that come and go.
Now,as the swimmer approaches the window of light in the upper mirror, she somehow feels a trembling clarity of vision. Then the mirror is broken. The frame of vision is torn wide open and a full measure of wild light fills her eyes. Every nerve, every muscle consumes this shock; it's like being dazzled and able to see at the very same moment.
Then it's all over. Gravity has restored the natural order.
Everything is like it used to be. Once more the mirror is closed. Only the yellow-green taste of fly accompanies the sliding race back down. Her heart beat is soon in balance, and so is her breath.
The upper world is always an alien one.
I'm a fish myself. I've had this experience thousands of times.
I've experienced the fake flies, too. The deceitful baits of those fishermen.
They want you and me to snatch their baits. Swindlers they are, trying to dupe us ... only to present us with death and a painful afterlife.
One of them must be different, though. I know he is ... totally different. He doesn't play tricks with us and he never uses a bait. He doesn't even try to bring us out of the water. I think he sort of likes us staying here.
Liked, I mean. Because something must have happened to him. Every time that feeling strikes me I'm filled with sadness.
What I wanted to tell is that one day he came diving down here himself. Quite alone he was and with no fishing tackle.
I was there. It's absolutely true. I saw him with my own eyes.
And he saw me.
It was then that he handed me this strange object.
"Take this periscope," he said. "Periscope ...?" I thought. "Yes," he said.
Then he was gone. I'm dead afraid he was taken by a shark.
What a wonderful thing this periscope is. I can swim for hours below the surface, watching the drifting clouds and the changing lights of the sky, sailing birds and waves that rise and fall and rise again. And I shall never again be afraid of fishermen.
Believe me, this periscope is a tremendous treasure.
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