Let Sleeping Fish Lie

by William Jackson on 2005-02-10

One of my sisters — the one that got translated into Spanish — married areally cool guy last July. It was July, so the colors for her weddingreception were blue and red. My mother already owned a red betta at thetime, so she purchased three more: one red and two blue.

These fish went in little fish bowls on the tables at the reception, andreally added to the atmosphere of the place. I mean, live fish on thetables? How cool is that?

So anyway, when the reception was over, my sister gave me one of thefish, a blue one named Violet.

Violet was a trooper. It was two weeks before I got him a decentfishbowl, and even then I neglected him every chance I got. I probablydidnʼt feed him as much as I should have. I didnʼt change his wateroften enough. I left him in Austin when I visited my parents for twoweeks over the winter break. Sometimes I would even leave my webcampointed at him all day, so Iʼm sure that stressed him out some.

The bottom line is, Violet is free from the suffering that I deservedbecause of the way I treated him.

However, I will always wonder, because Violet wasnʼt floating. I wasalways told that dead fish float. Was he just taking a three-day nap?

Now what? I have a fish bowl. Iʼm going to use it to hold the matchbooksI am beginning to collect.

Happy Chinese New Year, Violet.