Shark Fibbles

Ok, I am going to admit straight out that I lied again. This time to my grandkids about a scrape I got on my elbow in the Bahamas. First off let me say that I am back in St. Marys and the first thing the kids said (after they asked, “What’s for dinner?”) was how my trip was. I said as I usually do that it was great (true so far..) and that I saw all my friends, painted ceramics, went to the beach and discovered a cool cave in the dunes (all true also). And there was a really interesting craft fair and I got to eat fresh conk fritters. There was a guy there pulling the conks out of the shells, that’s how fresh (true too)! On my way back I stopped in Cocoa Beach and saw two of my sons (I tried my shark fibble on them and Dave guffawed when he saw the little scrape on my elbow I was calling a shark nibble. Neil suggested I keep my arm in my hoodie pocket and say a shark bit it off). I decided to stick with my original story and show the scrape because I had Jim, if needed, for back up.

Here comes the lie, the only other thing that happened (I told the grandkids) was when I was swimming with my friend Jim. We were swimming along when he saw a tail flopping around in the water beside me. He pointed at it and when I looked, it was a shark. I elbowed it hard on the snout so it would swim away and leave me alone and it worked even though I had a place on my elbow where it nibbled me before it took off for the deeper water. To my credit I lied with a straight face. My daughter, Lil (now in her 30’s) asked me if I was wearing my blue bathing suit because she remembered being chased by a barracuda (20 years ago) when she was there and she was wearing a blue bathing suit. My grandson Bob asked if it was a bull shark. I told him I didn't think they scared off that easy. He figured it was probably a reef shark if the top fin was black. I assured him it was. Julie wanted to know if it bled a lot and did I stay in the water with blood in the water. I told her it only bled a little since it was just a nibble but still I figured it was time to get out of the water. After that the shark conversation sputtered out because the kids wanted to go to the skate park before dinner and dark but none of them actually questioned my veracity. When they got back we ate dinner and my shark fibble never came up in conversation again.  

And the truth, in case you were wondering, is that I suffered a flip flop malfunction on the sidewalk in front of the chow hall and stumbled and scraped my elbow. Maybe I should have had the nurse shark check it out.