Ash Ketchum: The Prisoner Of Cell 25

Ch. 15 The Man Who Wore Sunglasses at Night

None of us spoke much as we drove downtown. I have to admit that Serena's absence had dulled my excitement. I think even Clemont was upset.

  When we got to the aquarium, my mother looked at me and smiled sadly. "Let's have a good time, okay?"

  "Okay," I said.

   Even though it was a weekday, the aquarium was running a Family Night Special so the place was crowded. The busiest exhibit by far was the sharks, with their cold, unblinking eyes and their teeth bared beneath them, gliding through the water just inches from the tank's glass, as if death were only a few inches away from you. I suppose that's how I felt about everything right now, as if something bad were circling me, just waiting to bite. I soon discovered that Clemont was feeling the same way.

  "Do you think Serena's safe?" he asked me.

  "I don't know."

  "Do you think we are?"

  "Not if she isn't."

  It was hard keeping my mind on the exhibits. The three of us wandered over by the electric eels. Electrophorus electricus are ugly creatures with pocked skin as if they'd all grown up with a bad case of acne.

  There were three eels in the tank, and the largest was about six feet long with a dark gray back and an orange underbelly. There was a voltage meter connected to the outside of the tank with a red needle that occasionally bounced around as the eels sent out surges. Out of curiosity I slid my hand over the metal corner of the tank and pulsed a little. The voltage meter jumped with my charge. Then, to my surprise, the eels in the tank all swam to me as if I had summoned them. Maybe I had. I turned back to see if my mother had seen this but she was looking through her purse. As I looked at her I wondered if I should tell her about my invitation to the academy. I wanted to but I wasn't even sure where to start. A few minutes later I walked over to her.

   Before I could at anything, Clemont said to my mother, "Did you know that electric eels are not really eels?"

  "Really," she replied, no doubt prepared for Clemont's upcoming monologue. My mother always looked genuinely interested in what Clemont had to say, which was probably one of the reasons he had a crush on her—which, by the way, still grossed me out.

  "They're a species of gymnotiformes, also known as knife fish. Biologically, they're close to the carp or catfish than eel. And they breathe air, so they have to come to the surface every ten minutes."

  "I didn't know that," my mother said.

  "They are at the top of the food chain, which means they have no natural predators. In fact, even a baby electric eel can paralyze an alligator with its shock."

   I knew most of this already. For obvious reasons, I had always taken great interest in electric eels. When I was nine I used to write "EEM"—secret for "Electric Eel Man"—on the corners of my papers, as if it were my secret identity. Still, I let Clemont talk. I think he would explode if he didn't.

  "They're basically a living battery. Four fifths of their body is used in generating or storing electricity. They can produce a charge upward of six hundred volts and five hundred watts, which is powerful enough to be deadly to a human. Though some experts claim they've produced up to eight hundred volts."

  "I hate to take a bath with one," she said, smiling.

  "Or give a bath to one," I said.

   She looked at me and grinned. When I was three years old, I accidentally gave her a shock while she was bathing me. It knocked her over. It was pretty much showers after that.