Viva Niemand
Wishes
Story by Beth Grimmwood
Mother put the gold fish bowl in the living room so everyone could see them. The cat looked at the fish longingly, day after day, his green eyes would watch them swim in lazy endless circles. And his tongue curled to think of tasting them. He wouldn't eat them. No. Then they'd be gone. Instead the cat would fall asleep on the floor purring with dreams of licking shining gold fish.
Little sister would gaze at the fish, and her fingers would twitch. She thought they looked like tiny birds with filmy wings that only fly in their glass bowls. She wished she could hold them but mommy said no. When she took her nap she dreamed of catching shining gold fish.
The gold fish swam in their bowl, exploring the lovely rocks on the bottom of it. When they looked out of their tank, they saw only other gold fish. With so many fine fish to meet, two fish began to plan a plan. "Why should we stay here in this little bit of water when there're surely oceans of it just outside these walls," they thought, "We should jump out of this place and join all those other fish." Then they would hang sleeping in the water dreaming of playing with all the shining gold fish.
On the last day of school, big brother came home with his bookbag. A pair of sneakers he thought he had lost, and a surprise. His teacher had given him two gold fish to take home for the summer. His mother put them in a round bowl, and he told his little sister she could look at them but could not touch them. "Why?" she asked. "Because they're mine!" he said.
One afternoon, while little sister and the cat were sitting together on the living room couch, the gold fish decided the time to act had come. They swam as fast as they could round and round the bowl until together they leaped clear into the air!
Many things happened at once. The gold fish found out there were no other fish on the floor where they landed. The cat rushed over from the couch and joyfully tasted one of the gold fish with the tip of his tounge. Little sister right behind the cat scooped up the gold fish in each hand, and held them gently for a moment. Then she put them plop! back into the bowl.
Everybody got their wishes that afternoon and nobody got in trouble. Not even the gold fish. But the cat always wondered if the other gold fish wouldn't have tasted just a little bit better...
From the album "Mine!" (1994) by Trout Fishing in America
The imange scanned by Idea Communications
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