The Shad

The neon lights blinked on and off, on and off. From his hiding spot just under the water, Sammy the Shad could see the bright city lights.

As he watched, his body was having little spasms, keeping rhythm with the flashing red and green lights on shore. He was shedding his hardened shell, the shell that had seen him through the winter and into the spring. Soon he would have the new wings. Come tomorrow evening, he would be ready to crawl up the reed and having dried his new wings, be ready for his big adventure. All his life he had wanted to fly – to be a pilot, maybe even an honorary colonel! In the meantime, he watched the blinking neon lights downtown, trying to understand their message.

The Shad are part of the cosmic consciousness; albeit a very miniscule part, yet Sammy’s tiny brain was taxed to interpret the same message that had been passed down to the Shad for untold generations. The message was to follow the light. At first, it was they thought it was the ball of fire or the sphere of ice and then the lights along the north shore, but this day there was a new part to the message. Not only was Sammy two weeks early because the water had warmed faster this spring, but there were changes on land where the two-legged ones moved about.

Sammy could see the gulls soaring overhead, circling like vultures, hoping to feed on any Shad who did not wait for the cover of darkness to make their journey. Sammy would wait, watching the flashing neon lights, still trying to understand the messages filtering down from the cosmos. Messages that seemed to come from that shiny glass building set back from the shore. Was that glass palace the centre of the cosmos?

The collective memories of his ancestors were awakening in him now. There was so much to see and experience, so little time. The memories of smells from the flowers at a place they called the Sweetman were diluted by the signals coming from the glowing building downtown. This would be the last spring and the word from the cosmos was ‘no trespassing’ on the garden and to go directly to Haven. Where was Haven? The waterfront was too close, too easy to attain – it could not be Haven.

Sammy did not understand why the two-leggers had removed the iron lines on the ground that had kept the Shad from Haven all these past years. That strange magnetic feeling that could only be overcome by the power of the bright lights was gone, opening the portal to Haven. Now, only a single line of iron stood between the Shad and Haven. Haven, where he understood there were many shad flies of the other sex, also drawn by the collective consciousness, who would be waiting for him. Surely that meant more than party time at Cecil’s?

Perhaps they had removed the iron to lure the Shad deeper into the city. New false lights were popping on all along the former iron line. Sammy somehow sensed that there was danger there because that place had many cats, another enemy of the Shad. It was bad enough when the voice in the cosmos had decreed the ducks could no longer be fed and now all those mallards were out in the lake, looking to catch a young shad before they had their wings. And not only were the two-leggers releasing thousands of little hungry walleye into the lake – fishes they had trained to eat baby shads - but they had stopped putting poisons in the lake, poisons that had killed some of the other fishes. Why did the two-leggers try to destroy the Shad? Even the Collective Consciousness had no answer for Sammy.

As he watched the neon lights flash on and off, on and off, Sammy wondered if these were all signs of the Diaspora. Why were the young always called away, never to be seen again? Sammy listened to the faint messages coming from centre of the cosmos but there was nothing there about the Diaspora nor about Haven. The Collective Consciousness told him off new palaces being readied to distract the Shad from Haven. Even along the top of the far away hills, the two-leggers had cut away the trees that hid the beckoning lights. They were building new structures along the ribbon of light that flowed intermittently across the city. The moving ribbon too, was attracted by the red and green lights, stopping, looking and then moving on, luring the Shad away from Haven.

As the ball of fire passed into darkness, Sammy tried to focus on the message from the collective memory of Shad. It seemed to be saying follow the light and ride the west wind, floating to Haven just as the ball of fire comes back from the darkness. Haven is the Lake of the Otter.

Sammy did not know where this Lake of the Otter was but knew if he followed the shinning path of consciousness, he would find it. He must not stop at the places where the two-leggers shone their false lights. A voice from the cosmos was saying that the Lake of the Otter was not Haven, but the Memory of Shad said this was a false prophet and Sammy must not heed the voice. For indeed this must be Haven because the collective memories told him that even the two-leggers had tried to shed their outer covers in the hope that they too could find nirvana at the Lake of the Otter.

Now, his wings dried, Sammy was ready for launch time. He checked once more for late gulls and leaped from the reed. Up and up he flew, looking down on the lights below. He would fly east, looking for the ball of fire and when he saw it, he knew he would be near Haven. Behind him, the neon lights flashed on, and off, on and off.