Our journalists were shocked to find out that Smee is in prison. Our inquiries to the other residents shed little light on why Smee was singled out.
“I can’t think of anything she’s done wrong,” SweetTart said with a flair of her gills and a sideways glance at authorities.
“She hides all the time. To the point that she disregards other people’s homes,” Brain Einstein said, purposefully jutting out his lower jaw where an impressive set of lower teeth have begun to grow. “If you want my honest opinion, I think she should stay there where she is out of the way.”
PUC and Beetlejuice were too busy playing Flipper to the Face to comment, and M. Geoffery was pretending to be dead in one of the larger plants.
Warden Crustation was kind enough to let us visit Smee. Her state was deplorable—huge missing chunks of scales, most of her flippers and pieces of her tail chewed away. The culprits, she informed us, were Beetlejuice and M. Geoffery. She couldn’t understand why she was in prison and not “the bullies who deserve the toilet.” We asked if her retaliation had possibly caused authorities to misunderstand the situation and punish her. She waved a broken flipper at us and said, “How could I possibly retaliate when my beautiful flippers are missing?”
In frustration, we went to the authorities for an explanation.
“Smee, has done nothing wrong that we are aware of,” a spokesperson said. “Her imprisonment isn’t punishment but rather protective custody. She is bullied by Beetlejuice until he is in prison. When he is in prison M. Geoffery begins to bully her because Beetlejuice isn’t keeping M. Geoffery in hiding. There is no scenario where Smee is not getting the snot beat out of her. She needs to be able to heal from her injuries but to do that she needs to be secluded. Once she has healed, she will be released. Fins and tails heal quickly so we don’t expect her stay to be long.”
We asked why they didn’t put her in the hospital instead, and they responded with a long-winded answer that basically said removing her from the tank seemed excessive; they didn’t want to add more stress.
Looking at the tiny prison, we seriously doubt she is under less stress.
—The Bubbly Review
Written In Ink 