Our fish, Goldie, died last night. We are amazed that he made it this long. I bought him at Walmart. I gave him to my son for his last birthday, in January. No one thought Goldie would live out the first week. But he made it through the last 8 months. I did not know I was attached to Goldie until I found him, lifeless, at the bottom of his tank. I had just remarked a few hours earlier that he seemed to recognize me when I walked by. When I conducted the solemn rite of toilet flushing this morning, I got a little teary-eyed. It was sad because I remembered how excited P. was that I got him a fish. It was one of those moments when all was well between us. I had the pleasure of giving him a gift he had not asked for, and seeing the joy it brought to his little life.
P. was more confused than anything when I told him Goldie had died. He asked a lot of questions about if other things die, like cats, and dogs, and soap. A few minutes later he became really still and took a deep breath and asked, Do people die? But he handled it well and suggested that we just get another fish and call it Goldie.
2 comments:
What is it about your family and the death of aquatic creatures? Lobsters, hermit crabs, betas? Something weird is going on.
When I was a child, my mother bought my brother and I a very pregnant Black Molly. We thought we might be getting more for our money with a pregnant fish. About the time we got her home, she started giving birth. Maybe it was the ride home that induced premature labor. It became very ugly in the fish tank very quickly. As the baby's were born, all the other fish in the tank thought the baby Black Molly's were lunch. A few survived. You can see aquatic tragedies do run in our family.
MOM
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