“Oh no! Oh no!”, were his first thoughts as he entered the room temperature water. “Just keep swimming. Breathe. Swim. Relax it’s just water. Careful there’s a wall.” Perhaps a little too late on the thought “Ow! That hurt.” Finally, the water seemed to calm down. “I’ll get out someday” Calvin thought to himself. Little did he know someday wasn’t so far away.
Day after day he swam, pulling lengthy strokes - or as long as his short fins could muster. He kept trying to remember this was his new home. Despite how he felt about it, there was nothing he could do about it.
The glass bowl was a standard home for any betta. Nothing too elegant. “Could use a nice Spongebob Pineapple or at least an octopus..” he thought to himself. Instead, the tank consisted of a single green plant. The rocks lining the bottom were like half marbles. There must have been about 7 colors, if not more. Beautiful blues, ravishing reds, vibrant violets, youthful yellows and glistening greens. The color scheme was the only nice part of his new little abode.
At some points in his life he used to wish he lived on the edge, well, now he lived on the ledge. A dark mahogany brown ledge, about halfway up a wall in a corner of a decent size room. To his right he saw a mere glimpse of light coming in from a window. However, mainly he saw the greenish - brown grass of the ground. Looking to his left he saw nothing but a foggy colored wall that seemed to never end. In back - the same nothingness. Although, when Calvin looked straight out he saw a pink coral color painted on the walls, a queen sized bed neatly made, a odd looking lamp that didn’t quite match the room, and a old fashioned dresser which looked as though it had sentimental value. Along the walls hung posters from various TV shows, small postcards from previous vacations, tickets from huge events, and photos of friends, family and more.
He went back to a peaceful day of floating around as he was still trying to get used to his new place. That’s when something - or rather someone - caught his eye. It was a girl.
She stood about 5’4”. She had milk chocolate skin, almost black as night eyes and rich brown-black hair. He hadn’t recognized her until he saw her hands. Those hands that put him in this prison of isolation. “Looks like I have to get through her..” swam through his mind.
The stranger never introduced herself. She was always in the room, though. Every so often she would stop and say something. Calvin couldn’t quite make out the strange dialect she was using. Sometimes she’d feed him a single round, tan-colored, awful smelling pellet. It was absolutely disgusting but it was better than starving.
As the days went on Calvin started to plan an escape. “The world out there has to be better than this!” would cross his mind as often the girl showed up in the room. “I need to get out! I know I could survive on my own..” was another thought about his boring bubbly life.
Two weeks went by. and sure enough, Calvin had had it. “Today is the day I’m going to get out. Today is the day I will escape.” The sun was shining, the birds were singing their song or as Calvin called it the “stupid birds need to shut up in the morning - some of us needs our scale sleep!” song. The world was calm. Well, except Calvin’s mischievous mind.
It was about 3 pm central time on a Sunday afternoon. Calvin was taking a few moments to calm himself down and let his plan set itself up. During his calming techniques, he swam in small circles around the untasteful plant. Even during this exercise, he kept his fins on the right track. Always making sure he was ready for the final moments of his life as a pet. “Swim. Swim. Swim.” kept circling his mind.
Looking in the direction of the window he watched his small glimpse of light vanish. Eventually, he could tell it had changed from dusk to dawn. He’d stop swimming long ago and was wondering where the girl was. Things were starting to seem a little fishy to Calvin. Finally, he stopped in the front of the bowl and waited. He just kept waiting for the girl to show up.
What felt like years to Calvin really had only been about 5 hours. However, she did come. When she appeared she said something Calvin ignored since once again it was as though she was speaking Gaeilge. “Hurry up, stranger. Do what you came here for so I can be free once again!” Needless to say, Calvin was growing a little impatient.
The stranger started pulling out various objects. Calvin stared in awe, curious as to what was about to happen. She pulled out a white plastic bucket, a black stick with a flexible mesh end, and a small amount of the pellet food. Then the most unexpected thing happened. Calvin looked up at this hand coming down towards the water holding the black stick. Calvin tried to comprehend what was going on but the thoughts raced through his mind faster than the speed of light. The next thing he saw was a huge black flexible cloth that was headed straight for him. “Swim away!” his instincts said, so he tried. He swam as fast as a dolphin. Well, almost that fast.
He tried his hardest, but he kept hitting the wall. The glass wall was deceiving; it looked like it led to a wondrous world, but Calvin wasn’t let through. Instead, he ended up quitting the fight against this flexible cloth. “I’m out. Not the exact way I wanted out but I’m out,” he pondered for a second, “Now how do I go somewhere else..?”
The second after he was picked up in the cloth and taken outside the bowl, he was placed in the white bucket the girl had pulled out earlier. “What is with this? I can’t even see!” Calvin swam in a small circle close to the edge of this new white cell. “Put me back! Stranger! Come back! I said COME BACK!” Calvin called out in distress but it was no luck. He waited for a few more moments then tried tapping in Morse Code against the bucket. When there had been no answer he realized the stranger had gone.
“Oh no. Oh no. Oh no…” Calvin was going in circles. At first, they had been around the edge, now they seem to be getting smaller and smaller. “Relax. You’ll be fine. Everything will be okay.” Calvin told himself about this over and over again. Remaining calm was the second most accurate instinct he had.
Suddenly Calvin felt a knock on the bucket sending him clear across to the other side nearly hitting the wall. Calvin shook it off and swam toward the middle again. He looked around and saw nothing. “Whoa. What was that?” He tried to see around him but again all he saw was white. He looked up slowly and saw the dreaded cloth headed toward him for a second time. “This is it... This is the end of the river buddy.” he thought to himself.
This time the cloth wasn’t as evil. He was still hesitant at first but eased in with caution. Strangely enough, when he was lifted out of the bucket this time he noticed he wasn’t able to breathe as well. His eyes darted around the room, looking from the walls to the girl controlling the net. Losing what little oxygen he had left in his tiny fish lungs as he glared at her. He knew this was the end. He knew the clock of death was ticking and his time was sinking fast.“It really is the end, isn’t it? I didn’t mean to plot the escape. Please, stranger, don’t let me die..” As soon as though thoughts had gotten done speeding through his mind, he hit water.
Adjusting to his new surroundings he took in a deep breath followed by a silent bubble. “I can - I can breathe!” he was so relieved. He swam around in circles noticing the bowl was the same glass prison as before. “Home again, home again.” Then it hit him - something was different. He swam over the rocks looking closely, through the plant once or twice and then to top of the bowl. His home was clean.
The stranger gently moved him back to his corner on the ledge. She reached down and grabbed his food, making Calvin’s eyes light up like star fish. She brought the food up to the rim of the bowl, tapping the container she dropped 3 small pellets of food. Afterwards, she quickly turned away, leaving Calvin to himself.
“Thank you for saving my life stranger.”
Calvin survived. He learned how to trust. He's a fish with a story we could all take a deeper dive into.
