Fishies

A good friend gave me an aquarium set about a couple of months back - I think I mentioned this in one of my earlier posts. I have been thinking what type of fish I should get. Colourful decorative goldfish or more 'practical' fish, the ones I can cook later when they're bigger. What??? Cook?? Yeah, that's my colleague's suggestion. At least I won't have to find a place to bury the fish - just cook and it's settled. Good for people who live in an apartment, where tanah (earth) is scarce. Crazy woman. I don't think I'd be able to do that. Geesh!

I finally decided to get two goldfish last Wednesday. Boy, was I excited. It's funny, considering this is not the first time I have pets. My grandparents had rabbits and cats, a whacky aunt claimed all the cicaks (house lizards) as her pets. I lived with them, so those should also be my pets right? What's yours is mine? Haha! Anyways, I have the aquarium set up that very night and put the fish in. Put little decor items, fed them and went to sleep.

The next morning, I noticed one of the goldfish floating upside down in the water. Yeah, you thought right - it was dead! Guess I really don't have the talent with fish. But at least one was still alive. I should really visit the fish shop and ask for advice.

I was too busy on Thursday, so I only went to the fish shop on Friday morning. Asked the shopkeeper what I should do, bought all the necessary things - new motor, some CO2 measure thingy, and a couple more fish. I went to set things up during lunch time - didn't want to risk the fish dead. So that night, I fell asleep watching thre goldfish swimming in the tank.

Saturday morning, the worst thing happened. All three fish were dead! I cried, and gave up the idea of ever keeping a pet. Maybe I'm not meant to care for anything. At least not pets, not now.


It was only during dinner last night that one friend asked about the fish. She went with me to buy the first two fish last week. And I told her they're dead, so are the other two. She was even more surprised when I told her the fish died overnight. Another friend told me I should get more fish, until one day there will be one that lives longer than a night. According to this friend, the Chinese believes that if I have something evil in my house, the evil will go to the fish. So I'm safe. Like the fish can protect me from evil. Like crystals. But what evil thing? "Your house has been marked - remember the blood trail?" My god, it's not over yet?

Maybe I should start consider buying the 'practical' fish. At least I can give them to my neighbours when they die. I'm sure I'm not going to cook them myself.

But the question is, am I willing to sacrifice lives in order to protect myself?

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