Excerpt: All I Want ....

I have a bad character trait, bad to me anyway. I cry easily. I cry way too easily actually. I know I do, but I can’t help it. When Mr. Smit told us one Monday morning that our class fish had died, I burst into tears. Hold that thought. Fish. Did you think one fish when you read that? Why is the plural of fish, fish? I have a problem with that. He said the class fish died. We said which one. He said ALL of them. The heater had broken in the fish tank and fried both tetras, both catfish, both of those aggressive gold ones that I can’t remember the name of, both angel fish, both silver dollar fish, both plycostymus (I don’t know how to spell that). ALL of the fish. All of those poor, sweet fishies (that should be the plural) had been boiled over the weekend. If I think too hard about it now (almost five years later!) it still makes me a little sad. We loved those fish. My whole class did. It took us weeks to name them. There was a nomination process for each pair. Then, once some good, reasonable choices were up on the board, we all got a vote. Mr. Smit, we all knew you were really teaching us about bar graphs, cooperation and voting systems. With so many fish, it took us more than a month to name them all. We had bonded, the kids and the fish(ies). We took turns feeding them and cleaning the tank. And then? They abruptly died. It wasn’t like we knew it was coming. It wasn’t like one of them was sick and might die. Suddenly, in a flash of an eye, the whole school of school fish was gone. We were devastated (overwhelmed, overcome, distraught, distressed, shocked, agitated). I wasn’t the only one who cried, but I think I cried hardest. Mr. Smit sent home a letter to our parents explaining just how bad the day had been and that they might need to talk to us about the circle of life. Mom tried to discuss it with me. She even used that term, the circle of life. I cried and said that fish tank had no circle of life at all. That fish tank was one big dead end. I will never, ever have a fish tank. It is too sad.