SPOT AND THE JELLYFISH CIRCUS
"Will it hurt?"
Plankton asks.
The dentist
administer anesthesia.
"There, might feel
funny for a while
you fall asleep."
Plankton's mind
started to wander
conjuring random
thoughts.
"Karen, you
think abou- opening
a jellyfish circus?" he
giggled, words slurred
by anesthesia.
Karen smiled.
"Jellyfish juggling jellies
and seahorse trapeze
artists," he continued,
eye twinkled with a child
like wonder as he imagined.
The dentist chuckled
as he prepared. "I'm sure it'd
be quite the show, Plankton," he
said.
"And hav- a sea
cucumber clown car! They
squish in and out, all
fish laugh!"
Plankton's giggles grew,
speech slurring a
jumble of words. "Oooh, look at the
squid in the corner," he pointed with
a wobbly hand. "It's playing the
accordion with tentacles! It's so...
squishy!"
The anesthesia
was working.
"And the star of the show," Plankton
announced dramatically, "would be a
dolphin... riding a dolphin! They'd do
flips and twirls and... and... and
synchronized bubble blowing!"
Karen'd never seen him like this before. "What's
next?"
Plankton's body grew limp, eye glazed over
and his words became gentle, rhythmic
mumble.
"Oh, octopus tightrope walker," Plankton
murmured, eyelid growing heavier.
"Wearing a top hat... and... hat!" His voice faded
to a soft chuckle.
Karen kissed Plankton's forehead."I'm here."
The nurse leaned closer, voice hushed. "It's almost time
for the extraction," she said.
"You'll be feeling sleepy."
Plankton nods, eye half-closed
as anesthesia tightened grip.
The world grew fuzzier,
distant, muffled by thick
blanket of sedation enveloped.
"Don't forget clownfish," he mumbled
now barely coherent. "They'd juggle... jellyfish...
jellyfish... jellyfish... jellyfish..."
"Plankton, you're gonna start falling asleep,"
Plankton nodded, eye fully closed. "Jellyfish...
juggling... so... beautiful." His voice was distant
whisper.
"Don't worry," Karen assured, her hand stroking his
as his mind drifted further into the abyss of anesthesia.
"And the... the... jellyfish... they're...
Why's everyth-ing... so... slow?"
Plankton's words trailed off in
to gentle snore as his mind
succumbed to the anesthesia's
embrace. He stilled, breathing
now deep and even.
The nurse checked monitors, nodding
in satisfaction. "He's out. Let's get started."
Plankton's snores grew deeper. His chest
rose and fell, dreamless
sleep continued, uninterrupted, blissfully
unaware of extraction, his mouth slightly
open as gentle sounds of his
snoring filled the room. The once-trembling
now lay still against his chair.
Whence surgery complete, the nurse dabbed
Plankton's mouth with putting gauze the
extraction sites. The anesthesia done its
job, leaving him completely unaware of
the procedure. The dentist sutured
gum, swift and precise.
"He'll be out for another twenty minutes or so," the
dentist said, placing the last stitch with a gentle
precision. "The anesthesia wear off gradually."
Karen nodded, hand still in Plankton's.
"Thank you, Doctor," she said.
"He's going to be just fine," he assured her, smile warm
comforting. "He'll be back to his usual self
though you can expect him to still be under lingering
influence of anesthesia, as he
may act funny for today."
Karen nodded, unable to resist
press another gentle kiss to Plankton's forehead.
"Thank you," she whispered.
Karen took the opportunity.
"Hey, Plankton," she called softly, her voice a gentle lilt.
"Wake up, sweetie. It's all done."
Plankton's antennae twitched slightly.
"C'mon, Plankton," Karen cooed. "Time to wake.
Spot is waiting for you back at the Chum Bucket."
Plankton stirred, snores morphing.
"Spot... jellyfish... circus... Amoeba puppy... circus...?"
"That's right, first, you need to wake. Can you
for me?"
"Jellyfish... juggling... so... sleepy," he murmured.
Karen watched closer.
Plankton's snores grew quieter.
"Jug...gling... jellyfish... Spot?" His voice was a faint
rumble. His eye fluttered open, revealing a dazed look
as he finally woke. "Wha... whath 'appen?"
"Your wisdom teeth came out, Plankton," she said. "You been
sleeping through. You had quite the dream coming out
of it, it seems," she said, her voice filled with
affectionate amusement.
Plankton blinked, circus slowly fading from his mind.
He looked around
coming back. "Jellyfish... circus?" he mumbled, voice thick
with remnants of anesthesia.
Karen chuckled and squeezed his hand. "You were talking about it,"
she said with mirth. "It was quite
the show."
Plankton tried to sit up. "Easy
now," she said. "Take it slow.
You might feel woozy."
With the doctor's nod, Karen helped Plankton up, arm
supporting his wobbly frame. As they left, he leaned
heavily on Karen as they made their way to the car.
Once in the passenger seat, Plankton
leaned back, eye fluttering. "Jellyfish circus..." he mumbled
to himself, slurred and faint. Karen's
pulling out of the parking lot.
Plankton's eyelid
grew heavier, the gentle
sway of the car lulling
him in and out
of sleep.
"Jellyfish... so... floaty," he mumbled. "And the...
the sea cucumber car... it squished."
"Still
thinking about
your circus, huh?"
Karen said, glancing.
Plankton's eye remained closed. "Mmhmm," he
murmured. "The squid...
playing... accordion... so... squishy. And starfish acrobats," he
murmured, dreamy. "They'd spin... so fast... like...
like... jellyfish... jellyfish..." His head lolled to the side, snoring
interrupting the flow of his thoughts.
"It's doing... it's doin’ the waltz... underwater... waltz... with
jellyfish... so... so graceful." His voice grew softer with each
word until it was a mere murmur, and then silence fell, broken
only by the gentle sounds of his occasional snore.
Karen glanced over at him.
"I think you've had enough circus for today," she said.
Plankton's snores grew more frequent. Karen's smile
grew as she drove.
The sight of her husband's
twitching and his mouth moving in sleep was a
peculiarly endearing sight.
As they pulled into the Chum Bucket's parking lot,
Plankton stirred.
Karen helped him out of the car, his legs wobbly
and unsteady as
they made their way into their home.
Spot, the amoeba puppy, oozed his way over,
his single-celled body moving with surprising grace.
He wagged his tiny
gelatinous tail, his simple eyes lighting up with joy.
Plankton's slurred words
grew clearer as he saw Spot. "Hey ther- buddy,"
he mumbled, hand reaching
out to pat the blob-like creature. "Jellyfish circus. Can you juggle?"
Spot stared up at him. He didn't have
tentacles but that didn't stop Plankton's imaginative ramblings.
"You'd be the besht juggling in the whole circus."
He leaned down to tickle
the amoeba's blob-like body. "Wouldn't you, boy?"
Spot oozed closer, his gelatinous body
quivering in response to the attention.
He looked up at Plankton
seemingly understanding.
"Let's get you to bed," Karen said, guiding him with a firm
but gentle touch, Plankton still not
fully under his control.
"Look, Karen, the... the... jellyfish are...
are... dancing!" His laugh was soft, sleepy chuckle.
She helped him, propping his head up. Spot hopped
onto the bed and curled up
next to him, a comforting presence.
"Now you stay put, and let those teeth heal."
Plankton nodded, his eye already drifting shut again.
"Jellyfish... circus... so... so... restful," he mumbled.
Karen pulled the blankets up
and kissed him on the forehead. "Sleep
tight, sweetie," she whispered.
Eventually, Plankton blinked his eye open.
His mouth felt thick
and strange, gauze a foreign presence.
He looked around, his gaze landing
on Spot, under his arm.
"Wha... whath... happen'd?"
Karen looked up. "You're awake," she said. "How do you feel?"
He reached up to feel his mouth. "Don't,"
Karen warned gently, placing
her hand on his. "You're ok, Plankton.
You had wisdom teeth removed."
He nodded, the memory of
the jellyfish circus faded.
"Thath... that was... was... today?"
Drool pools at the corner of Plankton's mouth as he blinked groggily,
wiped his mouth
with the back of his hand.
Karen nods. "Yes, it was," she said, voice
soothing. "You've been out for a while. Do you remember anything?"
Plankton's eye squinted as he tried to recall.
"No," he murmured. "It's all... blurry. I remember being in the
dentist's chair." He shifted his weight moving awkwardly
as the gauze in his mouth made speaking difficult. "What...
what after that?"
"You talked about a jellyfish circus."
Plankton's eye widened slightly. "Jellyfish... circus? Absurd!" he
murmured, trying to remember attempt to pull memories from depths
of subconscious. "I... don't remember that."
Karen chuckled, her voice a gentle reminder of his delirious ramblings.
Plankton slumped in embarrassment. "I... I must've
been out of my mind," he said, his voice still thick with the
aftermath.
"But it was also kind of sweet
seeing you relaxed and happy."
"I... I don't even know
whewe that came from,"
he murmured. "Hope
no one else heard," he
mumbled, his voice
muffled by the gauze.
"Do you need anything?"
Karen asked.
"Just... rest," Plankton
murmured, eye
shut again.
Karen stood up and went
to the kitchen, her mind
racing with the rare glimpse into the
whimsical side of the usually cunning and
scheming Plankton. She grabbed a bowl of
chum and a spoon, making sure it was soft
enough for him to eat.
When she returned, Plankton was still, chest
rising and falling with the steady rhythm of sleep.
She set the bowl down on the nightstand and took
a seat next to the bed, never leaving his face.
The room was quiet, save for his occasional snore.
Karen sat by the bedside, watching Plankton sleep.
"Jellyfish circus," she murmured to herself, a smile
playing. "Who knew you had such imagination..."