Happy Birthday, to me! Happy Birthday, to me! Happy Birthday, to meeee... Happy Birthday, to me!
Oh, and a Happy Father's Day to my daddio. You're the coolest cat around.
Yes, my birthday is on Father's Day this year. Yes, I love it.
Okay. I have a story for you.
So, I recently just got back from Youth Conference with people in my church. We went to Moab, Utah, and it was incredible. We went river rafting in the Colorado River the last day, and we were swimming and having splash wars and raft hopping for about seven hours. Was seriously in my top ten best days of my life ever.
My friend and I paddled down in a two-person inflatable kayak thing, and whenever we hit rapids, we burst in song to 'Just Around the River Bend' and paddled to the beat and bounced up and down.
I just felt like telling you that. This isn't the story. The story is when I got home from Youth Conference.
So. I came home from about a four hour drive back home and walked inside with my friend to find...a fish tank. Four goldfish were swimming around while my parents were sitting on the couch watching Harry Potter.
"A fish tank? What happened while I was gone?"
BACKGROUND INFORMATION: My dad has always said that we were never having pets. So coming home to a fish tank was...shocking.
My parents exchanged looks.
"Well..."
It goes like this. While I was gone, my city puts on this annual festival with carnival rides and food and a movie. My familia went to the festival and my little sister won a goldfish. My parents took it home and let it free in a vase so they could go buy a fishbowl. They didn't even buy the fishbowl before the fish went belly-up and was dead.
They buried it in the backyard by some roses because my other sister said that the Indians put dead fish by plants to make them healthy. So they figured to put the dead fish to use.
My little sister was slightly heart-broken about the whole fish-dying-thing, so my parents figured that they would buy a fish for each of us, as well as a tank.
Fast forward to this morning:
I woke up ecstatic that it was my birthday and hopped into my parents' room to wish my dad a happy father's day. When I went downstairs, I saw my mom sitting on a chair watching the fish tank.
"Uh, hi, Mom."
"Two of the fish are missing."
"I--what?"
I looked in the tank, and sure enough, all I saw was my fish and my little sisters fish swimming around. The other two were gone.
"Did they die and you just threw them away?"
"No. They were gone when I came downstairs."
"Maybe they pulled a 'Finding Nemo' and they're in the filter," I said.
Suddenly, my sister Emma came downstairs and skipped over to the fish tank and looked inside.
"Here it comes," I muttered.
"Where's my fish? Mom? Did it die?"
"Uh...we don't know."
My other sister, Laney, came down and looked inside.
"There's my fish!"
Emma gave her a dirty look.
"Go get your dad," my mom said.
Soon, my dad came downstairs and opened the fish tank and the filter.
"They're not in there."
We were thoroughly confused. The fish couldn't have just gotten up and walked away.
"Let me look more closely."
He pulled out the filter, and suddenly two fish fell out of the tube where the water gets sucked up in.
Except...
"Ew!" I gasped.
Emma's fish made it out...okay. It was slightly bent at the torso and it's eye was all mangled. Eric's, on the other hand, was literally squished up into a ball. It's tail was missing and it's body was rolled up. It flew out of the tube and bobbed to the surface, it's creepy fish face barely visible.
"Okay. Who's going to break the news to Eric?"
Fast forward to this afternoon:
After having another funeral for what used to be a fish, which was buried next to the other one, we found out that my dad set up the filter wrong, and that's how they were able to be sucked up. We fixed it and got ready for church.
When we got home from church, I went upstairs and changed.
Suddenly, I heard my mom groan.
"Oh, no...."
I popped my head over the stairs.
"Did another fish die?"
"Uh, yeah. Yours."
I ran downstairs and saw it. It's tail had somehow gotten stuck onto the filter, and was being sucked against it, clearly dead.
"Death-by-filter strikes again," I said.
"No, wait!" my mom said. "Maybe it's just waiting for us to get it out. Then it will be just fine like Emma's was."
"Mom, I'm sorry. He's gone," I said.
"But--"
"He's passed on, Mom."
"No, I'm sorry! And on your birthday!"
And now we've held another funeral. Three fish buried by roses. Two fish left. I can't help but think how long these will last, now.
But, maybe, someday, we'll see them all again.
