Friday, February 19, 2010

Truth or fiction?

When I was little, around six or seven, my older cousins liked to terrorize me. Kevin and Henry were ten years older than me, and because I thought the world of them to the point of hero-worship, I tended to believe anything and everything they told me.

One day, my mother bought me a set of three adorable neon fish. Being still in my single digits, I wound up naming them Snap, Crackle, and Pop. I loved them, since they were the first living things entrusted in my care, and I doted on them diligently, following my mother's care instructions to the letter. I fed them twice a day, and always reminded my mother when it was time to give their bowl a good scrubbing.

My cousins, being teenage boys, decided they needed to intervene with my developmental milestone. They told me our cat, Tiger, had been watching my little fish and that the tiny neons needed a bigger protector. They showed me a gorgeous, colorful big fish they'd picked up at the pet store just for me, and told me I could have it and put it in with the neons. I did exactly that, then went to finish my homework before going to bed.

The next day, the only fish left in my bowl was the big fish, but I saw three tiny neon tails floating at the top of the water. The water was a little cloudy. My cousins hadn't bothered explaining to me that the big fish was, in fact, a fighting fish and would obliterate anything in its territory.

I was distraught, but I decided not to go running to my mother.

Instead, the next time I was at their house, I decided I would drop a bar of soap in their very large, very expensive tropical fish tank.

After that they never bothered me again.

2 comments:

Makes Sense said...

Hard to tell fact from fiction, but I'll go with the run away version as fact -

Constant Progress said...

I think it is difficult to tell but I think that the fish story is real. It has a lot more detail and a stronger story line. This makes me believe that it was from memory.

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