last Friday morning pretty much sucked. Well, actually, it did not suck, sadly.
I went in to wake up G before jumping in the shower to fix my coif (when you shave your head, you do your hair IN the shower, not after it like most people.) I turned on the aquarium light to shine on little son-shine's face...as the extra light usually helps pull him out of his deep and golden slumbers...
So, I come out of the shower and hear him in his room sobbing...what gives G?? It's not that bad! I mean I know you hate getting up out of bed, you always have...but hey, today IS Friday - you can sleep in tomorrow...
So I go in there to cajole him into his usual good humor...uh...it was NOT gonna be that easy.
"What's wrong G?"
"The Suckster is DEAD!" he wailed...
The Suckster was his beloved and brilliantly, if eponymously, named sucker fish...far and away his fave fish in the tank. Other fish had croaked, and he had not batted an eyelash, but well...he LOVED the Suckster..it was always the first fished he checked out on peering through the glass into the little aquatic world he had created 2 months prior...
I fished (uh, pun, no pun...well hell) I fished the poor dead fish out of the back left corner of the tank where the fish corpses seem to wind up...less current back there I guess....using the little green net...where DO they make those little green fish tank nets anyway?? And has anyone EVER seen one that was NOT bright green???
I asked G if he wanted to say good bye to the Suckster...but he just buried his little face in his pillow, sobbing, and shaking it no side to side...I tromped off to the bathroom, trying not to drip fish corpse juice into his office...the only carpeted room in the frat house...
When I "buried" the Suckster in the traditional tropical fish masoleum, for a minute he came to rest at the bottom of the bowl, looking every inch alive, except sucking....well...too disgusting to complete THAT thought...FLUSH!!
Ironically, I think it was G's OTHER fave aquarium creature - Gary the Golden Snail - who killed the suckster...guess there was just not enough algae in the tank to sustain 2 bottom feeders...good thing Mr. Vacuum the albino Cory can supplement his diet with the daily flakes and does not need to rely solely on the delectable algae and fish poop...which were evidently at a premium...we had put in supplemental algae pellets and everything...obviously not enough of them...
In all seriousness, there are few sights more saddening to a parent than to see your 7 year old get on the school bus with tears running down his little cheeks and his eyes all puffy from crying...Heck, he did not even drink his Ovaltine!
I called him later that afternoon after school at his mom's house..
"Dad...ya think maybe we should go to the Library and get a book on fish tanks before we buy any MORE fish??"
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