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Death in the blue lagon

Kiomye won four fish on the day we went did hanami on the banks of the Shukugawa. They did not last long.

Ichi died at night, just after Kiomye went to bed. I considered flushing him right then, but decided I better wait until morning so that Kiomye could see him. I scooped him out of the bowl and left him floating in a cup all night. Kiomye woke up late. The babysitter was already at our house and I had just a couple minutes before I needed to rush out to work. I gave Kiomye the bad news and showed her the fish.

She began to cry. "Why did my fish die? I don't want it to die forever!" Real tears. Uh oh.

"Well, we need to decide what to do. We can bury it a the park, or we can flush it so it can go out to the ocean... to fishie heaven."

More and more crying. Obviously, the funeral was not going to go smoothly in the minute I had left before I needed to leave, so I wrapped the fish in plastic and put it in the refridgerator. I told Kiomye she could think about how she wanted to say good-bye while she was at school nd we would take care of it that night.

After work, I go to pick Kiomye up from school. I'm nervous that she's still upset. She looks fine when I see her. We are standing around with all the other moms helping thir kids put on shoes and sweaters and Kiomye shouts exhuberantly, "My fish DIED! We're going to flush it down the TOILET!"

Uh, yes, that's right. We'll be going now. Have a nice evening everyone.

On the walk home, Kiomye starts moaning again. She is a little sad, but she's also experimenting with greif. She cries for a second, then will stop to ask a question. "Where does the fish go when we flush it down the toilet?"

"I think it goes out to the ocean. To fishie heaven. She'll be so happy there. It will be beautiful, just like in the Nemo movie." Then I want to smack myself. Did I really just compare the afterlife with a Disney movie? And I don't think there's a fish heaven. I totally lied.

We get home, take the fish out of the fridge and then stand in front of the toilet. "Good-bye Ichi," I say. "You were a good fish."

Kiomye really starts to cry now and I'm a little surprised by how deeply upset she seems. She moans, "Don't die FOREVER!"

I drop the fish into the toilet bowl and gently ask, "Do you want to be the one to flush it?"

Kiomye's crying stops in a heart beat. "Yeah!" Whooosh, around and down Ichi goes. Kiomye is enthralled. "He's all gone now," she says to me, then skips away top play with her toys.

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The other fish lasted a few more weeks. The one black one, Toto, died next. His funeral was a much quicker affair. Then a few days ago, Ni went bottoms up. Kiomye scooped him out herself and did the flushing honors. This morning, our last survivor, San, finally gave up the good fight.

Kiomey wants to get a turtle next.

Oh little turtle that we bring home, I apologize in advance for your shortened life. We try our best, but we just can't seem to keep these little creatures alive.

With the exception of Hamtaro - still going strong (and often loose in the apartment) for a year now.

posted by Scribbler @ Saturday, April 29, 2006