Naming Noodles

Noodles wild cousin and his buddy.

Naming Noodles

“Oh no, we’ve lost the gold fish!”  

Not that I was especially perturbed.  It wasn’t my gold fish. I only went with my girlfriend, Melissa, who was really responsible for the gold fish, to look good. How big a job would it be to get a gold fish!?

Melissa had been sent to the pet store to pick up a gold fish for her little brother, Patrick. It was the little guy’s birthday and he said that  was what he wanted. No action figures, no ball glove, not even free movie tickets! Just a gold fish. Mrs. Finamer, their mom, already had the gold fish bowl at home hidden in a top cupboard in the kitchen.  And I thought taking her for lunch while we were out would help me score points.  

Anyway, Melissa and I stopped at the pet store first. Of course, we had to look at the ‘cute puppies’ and ‘adorable kittens’ before Melissa bought and paid for the fish. The clerk, a guy I knew from school, put it in a plastic bag that went in a box with a handle. I was supposed return Melissa straight home so we could set up the gold fish bowl with a gold fish in it before the birthday party. But, because we were in a mall, on a Saturday, we decided to look in a few stores. Ya' know CD’s n’ stuff. Then we went to the food court so I could buy Melissa lunch. We both got Chinese noodles, with shrimp and green onions, chow mein and fried rice. Talking and laughing while we ate, we forgot all about the gold fish and her brother’s birthday party. We were just carrying our trays over to the trash bins in the food court when my girlfriend started to cry.

“What’s wrong now?? You were happy and laughing two minutes ago?”

“Omigod!  Where’s the gold fish? What did you do with it?”

“What did I do with it? You had it last?” 

“Stop!  Don’t empty your tray! It’s a noodle box! They all look the same!”  

Even I panicked then! I had just about thrown the gold fish away.  So, I set the tray, loaded with crumpled napkins, chopsticks and noodle boxes, down on a table. Sure enough, we had five noodle boxes ~ we only got enough for four boxes. I looked carefully into each noodle box, throwing away the empties, until I was left with just one. The gold fish was still swimming about in his plastic bag - but did look as though he needed a better swimming pool.

Mrs. Finamer was not very happy with us when we finally got back.  She likes me though, so I got her smiling, almost, when I told her our story. “We even got a name for the little guy. He’s so darn cute.” I really had a hard time saying that, but I felt scared that I’d get kicked out of Melissa’s house.

Mrs. Finamer's arms folded, foot tapping, trying not to smile said “What is it? It had better be good, and something that’s appropriate for Patrick to hear.”

“Of course it is Mrs. Finamer. ‘Noodles’. Here, let me put Noodles in that fresh water. Look at him. He loves his new home, he’s gonna love Patrick and he loves his name.”

Saved. Mrs. Finamer couldn’t be serious any more. She burst out laughing “You know you really should have come right back. I’ll forgive this one......and ah, Noodles is a good name.”

“If you want a happy ending, that depends , 

of course, on where you stop your story.”

~ Orson Welles