|
"Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!"
"What? I'm right here you don't have to yell."
"Look
what I won," said the 6-year old girl, holding up a sandwich baggie full of gold fish.
"Baby, we don't
have a fish bowl. They'll die," he said perturbed that she ran off and won the fish. They were at her school's annual
Fall Festival.
"Please, Daddy, I'll take care of them I swear!"
Mrs. Jenkins, her teacher,
walked up to them smiling a bit too wide. "Well lookit that, Heather, you have some beautiful fish there. Make sure
you buy bottled water for them."
To Heather's father she said, "John how's Sheila doing?"
"She's fine. Just home resting now," he said.
"That's good. You'll beat this," she said,
and then she patted his arm, said a 'God Bless' and swam back into the crowd.
************************
"Mommy, Mommy, Mommy!"
"Damn it, Heather, don't wake her up!"
"It's okay,"
said Sheila. "What is it sweetie?"
"I have new fish."
"Oh, you so do. Aren't
they shiny? What are you going to name them?"
******************
The next morning John walked
into his kitchen to find his daughter crying into the glass salad bowl that held her fish. They were all dead.
"Baby,
I am so sorry," he said while squatting next to his daughter.
Sheila, frail and white, stood in the doorway
and watched her family through eyes that were now too big for her face. Everything on her, but her eyes, had shrunk. Her
skin had lost its elasticity and moisture and began to flake away along with her long-lost hair.
"What are
you doing? You can't go out," warned John.
"I can still drive," said Sheila, "and I need
to get out."
"You cannot."
"I can and I will," she said, "now get out
of my way!"
Hours later she returned with a small, round fish bowl and a little wrapped box.
Heather
sat at the kitchen table and tore off the paper for fear that her new fish were now suffocating. When she opened the box
she found six crystal fish attached to little glass balloons. Each fish was a different color and each sparkled under the
fluorescent light.
"These are magic fish," said Sheila. "They will never die on you, so you can
go on loving and admiring them for as long as you like."
"But they're fake!"
"No.
Watch," said Sheila. She filled the bowl with rainbow pebbles and tap water and then gingerly dropped in the fish.
The balloons bobbed up and down causing the fish to jiggle and dance. The light dove in and out of the water changing their
colors and making them shimmer.
Heather giggled and jumped for joy. "Mama they ARE magic!"
*********************
"Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!"
"What? I'm right here you don't have
to yell."
Heather turned to watch her son show off his new goldfish.
That night after tucking
in boy and fish, Heather climbed into the attic to retrieve a pretty blue box. She wrapped and packed her crystals when her
son began to crawl for fear that he would knock over and eat her mothers last gift.
"Little ones," she
said, "it's time you came out to dance again."
|
