Two Fish Become Four
I had the day off work today. A normal person would have awoken late, got up sensibly late, and had a relaxed breakfast. I'm not sensible. I got up at the normal time, made breakfast and lunch for my other half and youngest (who had one day of school left before half-term), washed up, and filled the washing machine and dryer with clothes.
After waving goodbye, I wandered into the lounge and remembered that we needed to clean the fish out. Ten minutes later the kitchen was littered with glass bowls, empty fish tank, and various ephemera. While re-filling the tank a thought occurred to me, and I wandered into the lounge – interrupting Miss 11 who was sat upside down in Mork and Mindy fashion, watching morning cartoons.
“Shall we go to the pet shop and buy some more fish?”
“CAN WE!”
You have never seen a child move so fast. In the space of perhaps two minutes she ran upstairs, got dressed, brushed her teeth, combed her hair, and found some shoes.
Half an hour later – after a trip to the supermarket – we arrived in the pet shop and had a look at the various fish we might get. After a bit of deliberation, Miss 11 settled on a Black Telescope goldfish, and a Calico fan-tail goldfish. We wandered over to the assistant, and a few minutes later found ourselves walking slowly home with our precious cargo.
Names. We needed names for them. This is where I admit to giving Miss 11 some ideas. Ideas so good she couldn't think of anything else. The black one would become “Batman”, because he obviously only works in black (and very dark shades of grey). The pretty calico goldfish would become “Harley Quinn”, because she looks spectacular, and is flecked with swathes of black and red.
Half an hour later the goldfish got to meet each other. I can't imagine goldfish are any sort of conversationalists, given that they can't talk, and have a brain smaller than a pea. They do know where the food comes from though, so they're not that stupid.
When Miss 10 returned from school she sat for a good twenty minutes in front of the fish-tank, whispering “Awesome!” over and over again, and having some sort of long and interesting conversation with them all.
The cats haven't noticed the new house guests yet. They will.