How far can goldfish swim
Sometimes it feels like I live in a commune.
Shortly before Elisa was born, three goldfish appeared in a small fish bowl in our bedroom. I'm not sure how they got there and I didn't ask.
Last Saturday morning at 6am, Aidan came into the bedroom, woke me up, and with sheer glee taped a drawing he made onto the wall. There are now drawings of his all about the house. The drawings are remarkable for two reasons. First, they don't show a lot of...how do we say...talent. Second, they are happy pictures drawn by a damn happy boy. I never used to buy into the thinking that pictures drawn by a child give some deep insight into the child's mental health. I thought they more or less just demonstrated what crayons the kid had that day or some random thought in his mind that had nothing to do what we adults consider happy or sad.
After about a week, one of the fish died. After two weeks, a second fish died leaving just the one to swim around the bowl all by himself. I was convinced the last goldfish would be dead soon. As far as I could tell, no one was feeding them.
Over 20 years ago, Yang's uncle fell in New York City. He was partially paralyzed and the American doctor's diagnosis was that he would not live very long. He was brought back to China and placed in an intensive care unit. His paralysis became complete and he had to be fed by tubes. His body withered away to next to nothing. He died earlier this week and all agree it was some kind of miracle that he lived this long.
Lydia is trying to tell me that her new boots are too long and I need to be careful when taking her to the DVD store. But her English isn't so good so instead of saying her shoes or too big, she says her feet don't go there, pointing to the tip of the boots.
In a few days, we will head to Bay Area for a two week vacation. The goldfish is still swimming round and round in that small bowl. I wonder who will feed it when we are gone. Since, after all, I don't know who is feeding it now. I also wonder if I it can swim across he Pacific, should I decided to flush it.