Feral Fish

Back in the day, when Kara and I shared a room, we also shared a fishbowl. That is to say, our fish did. This is the story of their lives from eight year old me’s perspective.

Once upon a time, there were two fish who were happily married. Their names were Mary and Joseph.

Now Joseph was a sickly fish and sadly, he died a few months later. 

Mary then went through two or three roommates, who all died mysteriously.

I loved Mary very much and she went on to live for ten years, at least, as I remember, living happily with her little plant friend. Eventually, she passed away at a ripe old age.

5-8 years later, I learned the truth about what really happened.

In reality, Joseph wasn’t sickly at all. Turns out it was Mary who would eat all of the food, leading to the deaths of every fish Kara owned.

Over time, Mary grew in size but ironically died of starvation when I forgot about her for a few days and she was disposed of by my mother. It was three weeks before I noticed she was gone. I was later told that this all happened in about two years, not ten.

It’s amazing what you learn as an adult. Just watch, next I’m going to learn that it wasn’t all the same fish either.

Wait. It was, wasn’t it?

- Katie