Geek Rock

We’ve been walking for days now. There seems to be no end in site. I was starting to loose faith and I was afraid we were going t turn against each other.

But then I saw it. The luminescent sign was bright compared to the other mall advertisements. It read:

Long Beach Pet Shop

I knew we were all excited. All of us except for Andrew. He didn’t say it but you could see it in his eyes. He wanted out. Didn’t want the responsibility. But it was too late for that. We’d come too far. Gone through too much. We walked to the back of the shop and stared. They were big, small. So many different shapes and sizes. It was the moment of truth. It took us long. Maybe too long. People came and went choosing theirs. We stood and contemplated until finally we decided on four.

Yes four. It was slow motion as the man came to take them out for us. We bought some extras to make them feel at home. Was I becoming weak in front of the team, who knows? All I knew is that my life would never be the same… How could it be the same? Aliens were entering our home base becoming one of us. It was strangely exciting. On the way home we were silent but not for long we were bursting with ideas. We were going to name them. Maybe I was becoming a softy. I knew naming them would make me become attached  and yet we named them anyway. Willow the elegant one, Ebony the one with the ‘afro’, Opal the big one and Topaz the one that was freakin’ out.

I got fish. Proper goldfish. Ebony is back (NO?), Willow was so chilled and very elegant and the shape of  a willow leaf (REALLY?), Opal was the biggest and opal coloured (SHOCKER!) and Topaz is topaz coloured (MINDBLOWING).

In the time it has taken me to write and post this bogpost two o my fish have died and all four have been ill. At first Willow was resting at the bottom of the tank and only coming up to eat. I woke up after two days of this and Willow was dead. Opal was showing the same symptoms so we spent whole day researching goldfish diseases. Apparently goldfish can live up to 20 years and goldfish hardly ever get sick (Ya right tell that to Willow, Opal, Topaz and Ebony). Nothing, We established that they had clamped fins but that was it. So we went to the Aquarium Shop  where the man was extremely helpful. He told us that it was because we hadn’t got our filter working and we never soaked the gravel in the aquarium. So he gave us medicine and a filter. We got everything sorted and put them into a very very clean tank. They were looking good but then Topaz   got these strange red markings all over her body and we noticed Ebony started showing signs of Ick. We went back to the Aquarium Shop and again the guy was amazing. He told us something about Ammonia we got some aquarium salt and more medicine. They all had Ick by the time we got back. We gave them the medicine and they were looking better. But unfortunately Opal didn’t make it. We ow have two little graves outside our house.