I awoke this morning like I do any morning, actually this is a lie because I generally wake up around 5am and today I rolled off my mattress at 10am. I'll start over...It was a pleasant morning, sun singing through my drapes, the tempo of life on days off consuming me andmy only worry: strawberry or peach yogurt?
And in an instant, as it often does, life changed. I didn't want to believe it. My mind raced for possibilities other than the obvious. Digging for food, playing? diving ? anything ? please...no....i wanted to cry but couldn't, wanted to go back to sleep, but the other fish were frightened as well ,huddled in the opposite corner of the tank and I knew what I had to do.
Poor Duncaan. What caused him to end it this way?
this is where i should clarify that Duncaan, one of my two red-eyed-bubble-gold-fish commited suicide.
I knew I had placed the purple rock too close to the tank's edge but never did I imagine that this could happen. Duncaan, his two bubble cheeks squished between clear glass and rough purple rock. I was, and am still, amazed at how perfectly verticle he was. He had to have swam to the tank's edge and nose-dived towards the red rocks, lodging himself, head down between the tank and rock. It pains me to wonder how long it was before his gills (insert word for action of gill's getting oxygen to fish)-ed their last. Did he squirm? Did it hurt? Did Findley try to help him? And to think of how traumatized Fin must have been. I can barely think. I can barely go on with this story, for it gets worse, yes indeed it gets worse.
I removed Duncaan, well, first the rock and then Duncan and against my will released him to a better place. (It may be fitting here to add that out of respect for the deceased, the downstairs toilet of my house is off limits for the following week). I digress, I removed the rock, sent Duncaan off and went about my other morning business. I checked on the remaining fish, all coping with what had happened, swimming low, sticking together, I sprinkled some flakes into the tank and watched them descend from the water's surface and decided I should leave them alone. I checked my email, decided on strawberry yogurt, threw in some laundry, made some phonecalls and finally it was time to make my bed. I walked back into my room and immediately my eye, like a magnet, was drawn to a dangling blob of orange in the tank. My heart dropped, then palpitated, and dropped lower as I approached and realized that this was no optical illusion. Findley had passed too. Out of sorrow? Out of shock? I am unsure. Whatever it was I guess his little heart couldn't bare to go on without Duncaan. (has the titanic soundtrack begun to play in anyone's head?) And so it is with great sorrow that I bid my farewell to Duncaan and Findley the cutest, most friendliest red-eyed-bubble-gold-fish in the greater seattle area. Duncaan and Findley, as long as i'm alive, your hearts will go on.