“Marie, come look at this,” my younger brother said as he stepped on the stool and peered over the edge of the tank. Goldfish swam around flicking their tails as they played within the fake seaweed toy my mom had bought them three months ago when we bought them at Joe’s Pet Store in town. The pebbles on the floor of the tank were clean since my mother had just given them new water after we got back from our week long trip to Florida to see my father’s side of the family.
My brother’s brown eyes stayed on me as he stuck a finger into the tank water, watching as the goldfish came up to him and started to nibble on his finger gently. He giggled and pulled it out.
“You showed me that yesterday,” I said a bit annoyed before I stood up with him and opened the door of the cabinet above the tank.
“What are you doing?” my brother asked me.
“Putting in the cleaning drops. Mom asked me to while she went up to talk to dad in his office,” I told him as I searched for the bottle. The phone started to ring, the familiar shrill filling the house.
“I can do it,” my five-year-old brother said. “You trust me, right?”
I scratched my head and looked at him. He pouted, instantly making me feel like the worst sister in the world if I said no.
“Fine, go for it. But make sure you grab the small red bottle,” I reminded him and went for the phone.
“Hello, Soukup residence,” I said into the phone as my mother had taught me.
“Hi, Marie, it’s Mom. Can you do me a favor and check the calendar for October 18th? Dad needs to know if there’s anything going on,” my mom said. I heard the typing of my father’s keyboard in the background and the loud chuckle when my mom talked off the phone to my dad.
I ran around the corner of the yellow walled kitchen and checked the whiteboard for October. In the living room, I heard my brother monkeying around with the bottle until finally a door shut and I knew he had found the right bottle.
“October 18th is free, Mom,” I said as I returned to where the phone attached to the wall. A sigh of relief was on the other end.
“Oh good, your father and I might have Nell and Lane come babysit you so we can go to dinner,” she said. Nell and Lane were Jimmy and my favorite babysitters. They were the only babysitters so far we had met who would play with me when I took out the Barbies and my brother took out the tractors. And she didn’t play favorites. We love Nell and Lane. They were also twins and the first set of twins my brother and I had met, besides the kids in his grade, Josh and David, who were less than kind.
“Awesome!”
“Alright, I’ll see you in a few minutes,” she said.
“Love you,” I said into the phone, hearing the same response back, and putting the phone on the jack again. I walked into the living room to see my brother’s face drop, his brown eyes leaking tears as he sobbed.
“What happened?” I asked him as I came to the tank and stepped up on the stool.
“M-Mom is going to be so m-mad at me. They’re dead,” he cried as he looked in the tank. One by one, each little orange fish floated belly side up to the top of the tank. I checked the label of the bottle he had chosen—a small red one like I had said—and couldn’t even pronounce the word. There were far too many syllables.
All ten of the goldfish within a matter of a minute were bobbing up and down on the surface of the tank like buoys on our own Lake Geneva. My brother couldn’t stop crying. My stomach dropped when I heard the front door open.
“Marie! Jimmy! Where are you?” My mom peered around the corner to check in the living room and found my brother still bawling.
“Sweetie, what happened?”
I sighed and pointed to the fish tank.
“I let him put the drops in, but he couldn’t tell which bottle was the right one. It’s my fault,” I said and looked at Jimmy. “I’m sorry. It’s not your fault. I should have found it for you.”
“Guys, it’s okay. I’ve done that before too. Should we send off our friends properly to rest?” My mom asked as she started to grab the fishnet and asked my brother to get a Tupperware container.
She scooped, one by one, each goldfish from the tank. Their eyes were clouded like a stormy day and their scales still the same shine they had when their gills were functioning. My brother followed my mom once the total amounted to ten in the container and we set off to the bathroom to let them rest in peace.
*Original story written by Marie Soukup in 2013*
