The Ghost Fish (275 words)

One Saturday two friends Alice and Tony went fishing at a local park. They had caught and released on good-sized catfish but wanted to keep fishing until the park closed at sunset.
Just as the sun dipped behind the rolling hills Alice caught a big one. As she reeled it close to the surface she almost dropped her pole in the lake. It didn’t look like a fish. It looked like a baby! But a closer inspection revealed an albino catfish about three feet long. Alice’s first thought was to through it back, but Tony was so excited she let him put it in the cooler and bring it home.
At their apartment Tony put the catfish on the kitchen counter. In the dim light the pink and white fish seemed to glow.
“Turn out the lights and close the curtains,” Alice said.
“Oh my god, it’s glowing!” Tony said.
“Oh Tony, we can’t kill it. We certainly can’t eat it.” Alice begged.
“What will we do with it Alice, keep it in the bathtub?”
“No, I don’t want it to suffer. Let’s take it back to the lake.”
“The park is closed Alice. The gates will be locked.”
“Oh pleeease! We can park along side the fence, I’ll climb over and you can hand me the fish and I’ll put it back in the lake.”
They both looked at the glowing catfish calmly gulping air on the counter. Catfish can live quite awhile out of water and this guy didn’t seem bothered at all by this experience.
“Okay, let’s go,” Tony said.
And so the ghost fish lived to see another day.

The end