This happened a good few years ago when I was still in sixth form, about the age of sixteen or seventeen. Every September the fair comes to Stevenage and takes over the whole High Street with rides and games and other sorts of typical things you find at fairs. Back then they were still allowed to give away goldfish as prizes, and I won one. This was before we could legally drink, but a few of us were drunk and were walking around Stevenage doing silly things that night whilst I had my goldfish still in its little plastic bag. Surprisingly it survived, so I bought it a tank.
As the years went by I had to buy it a bigger tank as it started to get a lot bigger. It also has to be noted that this fish was no ordinary gold fish. I was convinced it was the reincarnation of something evil. It would often jump out of the water of his tank like a dolphin and splash back into the tank which would cause water to go everywhere. It's most intelligent trick though was using the little pebbles at the bottom of the tank. It'd put them in its mouth and tap on the glass as I slept, often waking me up. I am partly convinced that it was trying to communicate through morse code. So as you can see, this was no ordinary gold fish, and there is no way it only had a five second memory.
So after ten years the fish was still alive and I was getting damn annoyed by the morse code messages and splashing, so I decided to move it into the spare room. Unfortunately as I didn't see the fish each morning to feed it, I forgot to feed it. I think it was quite possibly a week before I suddenly remembered. When I got to the tank in the spare room, I was quite shocked by what I saw.
The fish was lying on the bottom of the tank, curled up, I was fairly sure it was dead. I got a pencil and tried to nudge it, and it moved a tiny bit. I'm not sure if it was good that it was half alive. I tried putting in food and tried to get it to eat some, but it wouldn't. After five minutes, and realising it must have been in a lot of pain and discomfort, I did the only thing I could. I fished it out and put it into the toilet.
Before I flushed it, I saw its eyes staring up at me, for the first time in its life looking sweet and innocent. I flushed the toilet and never saw the fish again. The thing is, after this, every time I needed to take a piss, it felt like I was pissing on its grave.
Awww, poor fish! Last bit made me laugh though, then felt a bit guilty! I love the way you write your little stories! More!!
ReplyDelete