Poma

Part 2: Poma’s First Date

It was a lazy day off. I sat on the couch reading a book on the history of Chinese ramen, Poma laying her head on my lap, staring blankly into the pages. She’s been oddly clingy since I got home late the day before. She was still in her PJs, sprawled out half covered by a blanket. She turned her head to look at me as I turned the page, “Um… is this all we going to do today?”

“Is something wrong?” I asked lowering the book.

“I- I was kinda hoping,” Poma said, touching her fingers together blushing a bit, “ya know, it’s the first weekend you’ve had off in a while and you know I was hoping to spend some time with you doing something?”

I closed the book looking down at her, “well then how about we go on a date?”

Her face brightened up, “really!!” she squeaked, jumping up, “Where? Where? When?”

“How about the aquarium? You’ve never been to one before, right?”

“No never!” Poma said, “hyenas weren’t allowed. Let me throw something on!”

“And dress warmly! It can get cold in there,” I called after her as she rushed into the bedroom, clothes fly across the open doorframe, as she frantically looked for clothing, before she reappeared dressed in white long-sleeved sweater and a long blue scarf wrapped around her neck.

“How do I look?” She asked, doing a quick turn.

“As pretty as the day we got married.”

“Really?” she yipped excitedly. “Come on, come on, let’s get going.” she grabbed my arm dragging me along with her.

When we got to the aquarium the attendant gave the two of us one look and asked for our ids, he glanced at mine for less than a second before giving it back, but Poma’s he examined carefully before turning it over and seeing the old V4 affidavit and official seal. He shook his head and handed it back letting us through.

“This is so exciting,” Poma said, “I’m glad they let us in!”

“We have V4 to thank for that,” I say.

“V4? We graduated from there over a year ago now?”

“Yeah, don’t worry about it, dear,” I say, throwing an arm around her shoulder as we entered.

“Look over there?” Poma pointed, dragging me to investigate. She went from exhibit to exhibit reading everything about each type of fish, “This one puffs up when it gets scared? Could we scare it? I want to see that!”

“I don’t think the staff would appreciate that.”

“Ooooo,” she pouted, before moving to the next exhibit. “Cooool!” She said near the end of the trip, standing in front of the largest tank they had, large fish swam freely mingling beautifully in the open waters.

I fiddled with my ring idly watching her, wondering not for the first time since we were married how it all happened. How the unassuming shy girl from the academy and I had gotten together after we graduated. “I heard they had a petting tank?” I called to her, “want to check it out”.

Her eyes lit up, “Can we?”

“These are apparently called dogfish sharks typically growing no larger than a few feet.”

“They’re so cute and small!” she said, her tail whipping both excitedly and agitatedly.

“Remember you can’t grab them.”

“What!” she said, her tail and ears dropping and her looking dejectedly at me.

“Here, do what I do,” I say, putting my hand slowly into the tank using two fingers to slowly touch the back of a nearby swimming dogfish shark, letting it swim past as my fingers glide over it.

“Oh!” she said attempting to copy me, it took her a few tries before she was able to not scare them away. “They’re softer than I thought they’d be? Where are the scales?”

“Well most sharks do have scales, but the way they are shaped and how densely they are packed it feels smooth to the human touch. Dogfish Sharks are one of the most gentle sharks rarely attacking unless threatened.” I look up from the sign and see Poma leaning over the pool. “Uh, they ask that you don’t lean over the water?”

But even as I said that I watched her slip and plummet straight into the water. Me and one of the handlers rushed forward pulling her out, “Um we’ll get going,” I said to the slightly concerned but also rather annoyed handler. “Do you have a blanket for her to dry off in?”

“Sorry for causing trouble,” she said later as she dried off. “I always ruin things.”

“No you don’t, it’s been an amazing time exploring with you, okay. I’m just glad you’re fine.”

“Okay,” she said sadly, her tail swinging back and forth uncertainly.

“How about we spend some time walking around? There is still plenty of time left in the day.”

“Yeah, that sounds nice.”