The Goldfish

Everyone called him Fishy, a shining golden little creature swimming happily in his fishbowl, which had colorful trees and a smiling face painted on it. The face was smirking in yellow paint, with blue eyes, and an odd pair of protruding vampire teeth.

The bowl sat on a ledge along with a flowerpot, which had another shining golden little creature, a sunflower, who loved to always peek at the sun and the stars. There were two kids in the house. Arthi, the older sister who painted the fishbowl, and her younger brother, Anil, who liked to draw a pair of vampire’s teeth to all her drawings.

“Ouch” screamed Anil. “Arthi bit me maa” extending his hand and ran towards his mother.

“Arthi became a mosquito, huh?” taunted his mother, who was cooking dosa for dinner. She took a little wet flour and touched Anil’s nose.

“Mom painted my nose, Arthi, help help” he ran the other way now.

“Too many mosquitoes today, maa, we must get rid of the stagnant water in our garden” Arthi was chasing a mosquito with a newspaper rolled up like a weapon.

One pesky mosquito was sitting on Fishy’s bowl. Fishy and the mosquito were engaged in a staring competition. They were both curious about each other and kept staring for a long time without blinking an eye.

Anil noticed this and quietly sneaked behind the fishbowl. His eyes looked magnified from inside the fishbowl. He looked like an octopus with big eyes waiting to strike the mosquito.

Smack! “I killed itt… oh no!”

Anil tried to squish the mosquito and gave the fishbowl a tight slap. The bowl spiraled in slow-motion and crashed on the floor. Anil started crying and ran as fast as he could and hid under the table.

“oh no, what happened here? Anil are you alright?” mom came running and shouting as if the world had collapsed.

Arthi ran the opposite way and her quick thinking brain helped bring a mug from the bathroom, filled with water. She carefully picked up the little fish and dropped it in.

“Careful, Arthi, there are glass pieces everywhere”

“It’s okay, mom. Poor Fishy must be very sad. His house is broken… All because of Anil. Fishy needs a new home now.”

“eww… is that the mug from…” said a voice from under the table.

“You’re a scardey-cat. It’s because of you that Fishy’s sad” said Arthi.

“No… It’s the mosquitoes. I swear”

“Ouch. There sure are so many mosquitoes out today. Arthi, There’s a small stream running beside our garden, why don’t you let Fishy there? He’ll be very happy “

“Yes, mom. That’s a goody idea”

And off went Arthi with the mug towards the little stream to execute the goody idea.

At the stream, she gently poured the mug of water inside the stream along with the fish and started to walk away.

“I like mee be called Goldie” a quiet voice bubbled from under the water.  “Thank you for saving mee life!”

Arthi turned around and was shocked at what she saw. The goldfish was happily jumping in and out of the water and thanking her.

“Mee would like to give you ee wish. Think Think” said Goldie and jumped inside the stream again.

Arthi smiled.

That night, inside Arthi’s house, mosquitoes buzzed everywhere and started falling like broken airplanes. Few fled out of the open window, but most were helpless and fell on the floor with the tiny hands plugged in their tiny ears. The air was screeching with a weird sound. It was coming from a little golden harp, and Arthi was playing it.

“Yay. where did you get it” Anil jumped up and down in excitement.

Arthi smiled and quietly walked away.

“Thank you, Goldie, it worked” Arthi shouted out of the window across the garden.

The end🙂