unfinished tales 1

Devin lived by the pool, not by choice, but by chance. Circumstance crept up without warning long before Devin ever arrived on The Scene and made appropriate preparations. It was almost as if he were the final cause in a long line of cause and effect and finally the pinnacle of creation had made its grand entry into the universe. Devin was here. The pool was there and life was going swimmingly.

Although the general tone of The Scene was oft congenial toward existence, it happened one day as Devin lay in a boat fashioned from the trunk of an old oak tree that a certain giant fish (Devin only later discovered that this was indeed the species of animal that then announced its presence) made itself known to him. This was a surprise to Devin, because he had been up to that point completely unaware that any form of life more cognizant than a vegetable existed other than himself. Yes, Devin had eaten and excreted his fair share of flora in his time, but had never chanced upon another creature that adorned its bones with meat and did as it pleased as often as it liked. He was unsure whether he felt at all inclined to share any portion of his beloved pool with this new entity. Existence had inexplicably complicated itself and Devin a millisecond into this new epoch yearned for simpler days.

"Hello, I say, what are you doing on my pool? You've been shitting and drinking here uninvited since you arrived!" said the over-sized fish whom we shall henceforth refer to as Fish.

Devin had always ignored the faint uncomfortable feeling that accompanied the thought that both ends of himself were equally involved in the pool. There was something unsavory about the entire affair, but because no one had ever said anything (other than himself) he continued in his unabashed blissful squalor. Devin thought it rather forward of this fish to disturb his peaceful repose and doleful contemplation of cloud formations. The way it had announced itself was nothing short of rude and Devin in spite of his toilet etiquette, or lack thereof, felt that all people should maintain at the very least his level of gentlemanly refinement; for he had never in all his days so much as cast a pebble in the peaceful ocean of someone else's thoughts.