In a private dining area of a tall, commercial building owned by Viggo, Udoka, a tawny-brown man with short straight hair sits at a table next to a large fish tank in the middle of the room. He faces the fish tank with a blank expression, lit by the natural light from the large windows enclosing the room. A sixteen-inch octopus crawls toward him from inside the spacious tank. It places its tentacle on the glass. Viggo, a solid-shaped, dark tortilla-brown, bald man chuckles. 

“Do you remember the last boating trip, Udoka?” He points at the tank for a moment. “That’s the same octopus that attacked me. I know, because it has the same bullet hole.” He laughs, then leans closer to the fish tank from his side of the booth. “That’s what you get for disrespecting me.”. He leans back into his long, semi-circle, black leather seat that’s identical to Udoka’s. 

A butler placed a covered, silver food platter on the round, dark wood table between them. 

“Ah, here we go. For you, Udoka. Made by my personal chef. I don’t normally do this, but I greatly appreciate you coming by my office to discuss a potential partnership. Please, eat as much as you like.”. Viggo lifts the lid. A spread of grilled vegetables, roasted baby medley potatoes, sliced grilled steak, and deep-fried calamari displays in front of them. The air around the table fills with the warm savory scent. They begin to eat. Udoka’s eyes become stuck onto the staring octopus. He turns to Viggo. 

“Is this appropriate? To eat tentacles in front of it.”. Viggo smirks. 

“No. But, we’re eating squid, not octopus.”. He bites into his marbled, medium cooked wagyu steak. He then munches on some calamari as he begins to speak. “That thing is a rare octopus, and illegal to own. But I’m not owning it, I’m imprisoning it.” Udoka eyebrows raise with a tilted head. 

After eating with small talk. Viggo’s butler hands him a cigar. Udoka raises his hand, preventing the butler from coming closer. Viggo speaks. 

“Back to business. We both know what I want. A share of your thrift store chain. But Udoka, my friend.” Viggo grins at him. “What do you want?” With a dull face, Udoka responds. 

“Perhaps more money. Although I feel like I have enough of that. That’s not what I’m missing.” 

“What do you mean? With money, you can buy anything, and do anything. You can party even more. More women will want to have sex with you. Collect a couple of classic cars.” Udoka sighs. 

“Nah, that’s not it.” He looks at the dark brown octopus. The octopus’ eye widens. It propels backwards, changing its skin color, disappearing into the light yellowish-white rocks in the tank. Viggo continues. 

“Whatever you want could be bought.” 

“I already have the money for that.” 

“But do you have enough?”, Viggo said with a smirk. Udoka looks up for a moment. He then looks at him. 

“This deal feels like imprisonment. What’s the point of having money that doesn’t last long? This thrift store chain is my legacy that continues to generate wealth. Making a deal with you seems to be limiting my control and assets.”, Udoka voiced. 

“I don’t believe that’s the case here. I am willing to pay you, upfront …” Udoka suddenly feels water on his left waist. He looks up. His eye captures small round cameras in the corners of the smooth black ceiling. 

“Hmm”, Udoka said as he looked away from the dry, black, fiber cement board. He peers down at the wet section of his dark gray jacket. His eyes widen as he watches a tentacle slip into his pocket. He Immediately looks at Viggo. 

“Ah, I see you finally have interest”, Viggo said with a wide smile. Udoka smiles back, then suddenly stops. He takes a deep breath as he brings his hands together, connecting his right fingertips to the left. 

“Sorry Viggo, but I have to decline your offer at this moment. My … gut is feeling weird about this.” Viggo turns his head slightly with narrowed eyes. With a half smile he speaks. 

“You’re one of those guys with the gut huh. Okay. I hope this won’t put a dent in our friendship. I’ll be seeing you at the regatta, right?” 

“Of course, this is merely business.”, Udoka said with a smile. Viggo looks at him as he puffs out smoke. He waves to the security. 

“Escort my good friend Udoka to the exit.” 

“Thank you for the lunch.”. Viggo taps the ashes off his cigar. 

“No problem, Udoka.”, he said with a quick smile followed by a slight sneer. 

Udoka quickly walks out of the building. Viggo watches through the window above. 

“I guess you’re not as stupid as I thought. You do have a small store chain after all.”, Viggo said. He walks to his tank, looking around in it. “But why would he stop there? Is he up to something?” Viggo taps on the tank with his free index finger. “I need to get inside his head.”. He taps on his tank again. “Where is my little prisoner?”, he said with a smirk. He walks around the tank, looking at the bottom. “He’s not at his usual hiding place.” He immediately stands straight with a scowl. “So that’s your plan Udoka. Holding my octopus hostage. Security! Find Udoka now! Bring him back here with my octopus. Use force. As much as you want.”. Viggo’s jaw clenches, choking his cigar. “You will not disrespect me, Udoka. I didn’t reach this level of success for you to hold me hostage.”. Viggo’s teeth suddenly cut through the cigar as he stares out the window. He glares at it, growling.

Few blocks away, Udoka walks down the sidewalk that’s tucked between a valley of tall buildings. 

“I hope I didn’t make a mistake. What if more money is the solution? But then I won’t have complete control over my business, potentially losing it. Although, it will get me closer to other successful people. Do I really want to go there? In the big leagues.”. The octopus starts to seep out of his pocket. “Oh, hey little buddy.”. Udoka looks around then briskly turns the corner. Two security guards spot him from far behind as he disappears. Udoka finds himself under a monorail track near an unfinished oceanfront commercial building. He slips through the opening of the inactive construction site’s rickety, wooden barrier. Alone, he pulls out the octopus. “Ew, you’re kind of slimy. You escaped and crawled into my pocket. Why is that? Why did I keep it? I don’t know anything about octopuses … octopi?”. He brings it up to his face. “Do you trust me or something? You choose to be with me?”. The octopus tentacle stretches and touches his nose. He smiles. “That’s it huh, you want to be with me. You’ll be my pet.”. He chuckles, then stops for a moment. “I think this is it”. He spins with the octopus, “This is the feeling I’m looking for. I’ll protect and care for you—” he looks into his head for a moment. “Amal”.

“Hey, you!”, one of the guards shouted. Udoka peeks over his shoulders as he stuffs the octopus in his moist pocket. He spots the guards. 

“Shi—” he begins to run. The guards immediately follow at top speed. In a populated area, Udoka twists and shoves through the thin crowd on the sidewalk that’s connected to tall buildings with glass walls facing the blue ocean and yellowish sand across it. Eventually, Udoka turns into a parking garage. He jogs to the upper level. He giggles. “Look at us. You and I are already doing exciting things.”. He pulls out the octopus. “I can’t wait to buy stuff for your tank. Say, do you think there is a portable tank for cephalopods? You can come with me to work and home. I never had someone who’s always at my side. Not through good and bad times. I always felt isolated. Even as a child. No one really liked me. Others are just too ambitious or not ambitious enough. It’s hard to make a connection when you fit in with nobody. You’re just stuck in the middle, alone. And no one is willing to understand why being in the middle is better than the extremes.”. He holds Amal closer to his face. It touches his nose. “You will be the only one I got. Hey, Amal you’re not as slimy, and your skin is a bit tough, like rubber. And pale.”. Udoka gasps. “You’re an octopus! You-you, you need water. Wh-what type of water do you need? Can I use bottled water, or do you need salt water?”. He spots one of the security guards. Udoka slipped between the cars. “I-I don’t know what you need Amal. I should’ve cleared my head while driving home instead of walking around. I would probably be closer to a pet store.”. 

A laugh of a seagull snatches his ears. 

“The ocean. Y-you like ocean water.”. Udoka peeks from the side of the car. Just a few feet away, the guard slowly approaches. Udoka looks behind. He creeps to the solid concrete railing, and looks down. “That’s a bit of a fall”. He shoves the octopus back into his damp pocket. He bites his lips and looks back. “I don’t want to put you back in that box. Not after you trusted me with your life.”. His drooping gaze suddenly meets the guard’s boots. 

“Hey you, stop!”. The guard pulls out his rifle gun. Udoka looks at his face, then leans back, falling over the concrete barrier. The guard rushes to it. Udoka does a backflip and lands on the roof of a jeep. He jumps off the bouncing, empty vehicle, and runs out of the garage. The guard growls as he takes out his walkie talkie.

Udoka runs down a sand littered sidewalk. He snatches a large, red plastic cup from a nearby trash, and jams Amal in. A few hundred meters away, the security guards quickly march down the same walkway, monitoring every movement and face. Standing in the clear, shallow water of the beach, Udoka bends down, tilting the red cup to scoop the water. The octopus lethargically creeps out of the cup. Udoka immediately lifts it. “Wait, what are you—” he looks at the octopus. “No. Right, you wanted to be free.” He takes a deep sigh. “Makes sense, who wants to live in a box …. But is this better than living with me?”. Udoka stares into the octopus’ squiggly pupils for a moment. Udoka puts the cup in the water and pours Amal out. The octopus wraps its tentacle around his finger. Udoka looks at Amal with a weak smile and a tear. Suddenly it propels itself, camouflaging into the sand. Udoka stands straight as the salty wind cradles his sulking face.

Udoka slowly turns around. 

“Don’t you dare move an inch.”, one of the guards commanded, while another stayed in the sand, talking on the phone. Udoka sneers. The guard grabs him by his shirt.

“Where the hell is the octopus, Udoka?”

“What octopus? Can you see I’m drinking by the beach?” 

“Cut the crap, we have been running after you all evening.”. With slightly raised eyebrows Udoka responds.

“Ohhh, that was you. I thought you were someone else.”. 

“What was in that cup?” 

“My finished drink.” Udoka drops the cup into the water. “Don’t worry, if an octopus was in there you would have seen it fall out.”. The guard growls. The other guard calls out to them. “The boss said bring him in”. Udoka gets pulled out of the water by his jacket as he looks off into the ocean. 

Back at Viggo’s private dining area, the guards throw Udoka inside onto the smooth, shiny, black and gray metallic epoxy floor. Viggo stomps to him. Immediately, he punches Udoka in the face while still on the floor. 

“Where’s my octopus!”. Viggo lifts him up by the shirt. “Don’t act like you can take a punch. Give me back my octopus.”, Viggo said glaring into his eyes. Udoka looks back at him with the same eye sockets filled with dullness. 

“I work at a thrift store, I had better beatings.”, Udoka said. He then scolds the guards. “You idiots, did you even see me with an octopus?”. The guards soften their scowl. “And you.”. He slowly faces Viggo, “I was literally eating in front of you. When would I take your octopus?”. Viggo lets go of him. Udoka notices the partly opened tank. As Viggo calls for his tablet, Udoka goes to it and pretends to open the latch. He drips water all over the seat where he was sitting. “The freak is hiding in there. He doesn’t want to be seen.”. He shoves his hand into the tank. Viggo stops flipping through his camera footage and turns to him. “It doesn’t want to live in abundance that offers nothing to look for”, a grimace appears on Udoka’s face. “All alone with its thoughts. Longing for something it doesn’t know. He’s left alone, abandoned, stuck in a perfect tank with everything he needs to survive and more, but still miserable with angry, irritating thoughts that no one else can understand.” 

“Settle down, it’s my enemy not yours.”, Viggo said with a twisted face. He pulls him away from the tank. Udoka takes deep breaths and shrugs Viggo off. “Clearly you didn’t take it. Sorry for this misunderstanding. It’s-it’s that I take these things seriously. I don’t take any disrespect likely. No hard feelings right.”, Viggo said with a strained smile. “You probably would’ve done the same thing if someone came into your home and took your prized possession. Are we cool? Can you still see a possible future where we can be partners?”. Viggo calls for his butler. “Give this wonderful man a gift.”. With a twisted face, Udoka replies. 

“This interaction put a dent in things. I’ll tell you what. Give me extra time to think about it. And expect a possible change in the entirety of the contract if I do decide to seriously consider your offer.”. Viggo sneers. 

“Stupid octopus.”, Viggo grumbled under his breath with clenched jaw and fists.

After hours of driving, Udoka pulls into his driveway with his slightly swollen face. He spots his neighbor that’s about to go for her usual jog alone. He watches her for a moment. He then looks at the finger Amal held. 

“Maybe all I need is a deeper connection.”. He gets out of his car and talks to her. “Hey, a great evening for a jog.”. She sneers at him. 

“I’m a busy woman with things to do.”

“I see that. Would you mind if I join you?”. She looks him up and down for a moment. 

“What happened to you?”

“It’s nothing I couldn’t handle. Just getting some business done. How about that jog? Two busy people jogging forward through life.”. She smirks. 

“Maybe some other time.”. Udoka smiles.