Lou the Shrimp - Canto I: The Outsider

Haggard and exhausted, Lou slid from the back of the sea turtle and lay so still on the sediment many believed he had breathed his last. Then a pleopod twitched. Life returned to his eyestalk. He struggled heroically to lift himself up to his full height. We all sensed the we were witnessing history as he wheezed through fouled gills the famous words:

“I have found Almeria. We are saved.”

Gather ‘round my zoeae and hear the Legend of Lou. I call upon Laurie, my muse, to sing with me the song of our founder. Laurie, enliven my age-weary mouthparts with the vigor of youth, for youth is where our story begins:

“Hold his telson down!” “Don’t let him get hold of your rostrum!” Lou began his life like he ended it, as a leader, as a warrior.

Lou came to Estuaria by accident. He was born in an unknown land. Candice, his mother, said she was swept away from her home by a great hurricane that lasted 40 days. Many times she believed she was dead as the currents tore at her carapace. Many times she awoke in blackness. All the while, Lou, still just a zoea, clung to the hairs on her pleopods.

When the storm ended, Candice awoke in Estuaria, with the tired faces of the Estuarian commoners around her. Despite their poverty they had taken her in. Despite the strict rules against strangers, they had cared for her. Despite iron rule of The Prawns, they had saved Lou, not knowing he would one day save them.

But the storm had broken Candice. As she lay in the guest room of the Wigglers, she knew the end was near. She turned seeing Ms. Wiggler close at hand and whispered her final words:

“Thank you all for what you have done. I know I will soon begin my ascent. I shall never see my home again, but this is my home, now. This is my son’s home. Please care for my little Lou. I’m afraid we shall never see our beloved Almeria again.” Candice didn’t see or hear the gasp from Ms. Wiggler. “Is it the legend?”

Ms. Wiggler knew that if The Prawns got any hint of this story they would seize and execute Lou. If he was the one spoken of in the legend, Caridio, it was her duty to keep him safe. Whom could she tell? The safest answer was no one. And that is what she did. She told no one. Not her husband. No one. None of her 63 other children. No one. Not even Lou.

The commoners all knew the legend, but none thought seriously of Lou being Caridio.

The plan was simple. The Wigglers would raise Lou as their own.

Only old Mr. Fringe spoke against the plan to keep Lou hidden from The Prawns. “We shouldn’t anger The Prawns. If they find out, they’ll take it out on all of us. Who knows how many would be sent to the surface?” He had lost his will since his children were all butterflied and skewered by the The Prawn Prince Penae Secundus as a lesson to all shrimp who would dare teach their young to read.

Lou attended the secret classes with the other children.

“Go crawl back under your mama’s abdomen.” It was Troy Tailwhipper. Almost a full two centimeters longer than the next biggest kid, Troy ruled the schoolyard. He stole plankton from the littlest ones, defecated on the middle of the back of the thorax of the unwary (just where they couldn’t reach), and stuck firecrackers up brine shrimps’ asses.

And the bully always finds the new kid. And Lou was the new kid. “Oh, what is that about your mama? Did she even know your daddy?” Lou sat all day and listened without reaction to the taunts from the slovenly Troy. “I always thought ‘swept away by a storm’ was just code for ‘pregnant outcast whore.’” Troy got more and more dirty, more and more personal, but Lou showed no concern. It was Troy that trembled at Lou’s calm, controlled stare.

“I’ll see you at three under Hangman’s Coral. You’d better be there. Ask around what happens to excretory orifices that wuss out.”

Hangman’s Coral. Every kid followed Lou there. “Troy’s really going to give it to this one.” “The new kid is whale food.” “I’d rather be caught by The Prawns than be New Lou today.”

And so Lou did it. Troy jumped Lou from the back, but Lou darted out of the way, turning swiftly at the last second to kick mud up into Troy’s face. Confused and off balance, Troy turned around to find Lou’s rostrum pushing between his first and second abdominal plate, pinning him to the sea bed. Troy struggled, but found any motion made the pain even more unbearable.

And so Troy did it. He called for mercy, and mercy was given. Troy tumbled off, caressing the sore spot, grumbling about being tricked.

And so Lou was a warrior. Troy still grumbled about revenge, but no one listened to him anymore.

Lou charmed others instantly. Teachers remarked on his attentiveness. The girls admired his long, vividly striped antennae. The boys looked up to him. His foster families appreciated his grooming and the way he kept his grime bed tidy.

And so Lou was a leader.

But he was still an outsider. No one said a word to remind him, but he still felt alone. “This is not my life. There is something else.”

And so Lou made a change.

Next issue: Canto II: The Troublemaker