Ariel: One Act

Last night, I found my sister to tell her that ariel (caroline's beta fish) died. She survived insurmountable odds to be alive in my sister's care for 18 or so months. So my sister catherine was trying to muster up some internal grief to tell caroline the news when she came bouncing into the kitchen.

what follows is an email that catherine sent out to describe the scenario:

i stopped her, got down on her level and tried to act like i was sad.
"honey, i have some bad news. ariel went to be with flounder" (evie's beta who committed suicide last fall by jumping out of his bowl).
caroline looked at me blankly.
"you know, flounder? ariel missed him and now they are together forever." <crickets> "ariel is dead, honey."
"no, she is not." giggles "i don't believe you"
"caroline, ariel is dead. she died. she is no longer alive."
laughing, "mommy, she is not. you are not telling the truth."
"caroline, she is floating in her bowl."
"she isn't."
"yes, she is"
"no, she isn't. i know it."
"how do you know"
"i'll show you the next time we go to disney world. ariel is alive"
pause <struggling not to laugh>
"caroline, remember your fish? ariel? you named your fish ariel. that is the one that is dead."
"i want to see"
looking at dead fish
"can i put her in a cup and look at her?"
"no. that is gross. we are just going to flush her"
caroline disappears. she reappears with a ziplock full of water.
"i am going to put her in here so i can look at her and then i will flush her"
"no"
fast forward 7 minutes of arguing
catherine: "let's all go around and say a nice thing about ariel"
liz: five minutes of homily about a fish
evie "blah blah, nice fish, blah blah, pink"
caroline "no"
catherine: amen.
FLUSH.
--end email--

What catherine forgot to mention was the part during my five minute homily when Evie kept interrupting to clarify if I really meant that "ariel was the best beta fish ever" and did I "forget how awesome flounder (her fish that committed suicide last fall) was and how he did everything ariel did but he did it better?"

I'll be honest. I didn't like Flounder. I'm happy he jumped out. There. I said it. Ariel WAS the best beta fish ever. If fish can have personalities.. Ariel did. I feel bad all over again.

the end.