Corrupt Tabula Rasa
By Michelle H., Mountain Home, AR
Streams of light broke through the window, bearing down on another glass object and illuminating the water inside. The angelfish paid no attention. She swam from one side to the other, gliding through the water. A plastic forest of kelp floated by on her right; a porcelain sign warning the world that Jaws was around passed by on her left, and behind her, her reflection was snobbishly swimming in the other direction. Too bad the world was so small that her image was coming round the other side.
She was a thoughtful creature and had she not been preoccupied, she would have investigated that other beautiful fish she saw swimming toward her.
It would be soon enough.
She wondered what it was like outside the glass, if it were as peaceful and serene as her underwater paradise, if bubbling music drifted from the corners of rooms, if the ground were as colorful as her smooth pebble floor.
She had often thought these things.
She had just noticed a lump outside the glass and, to her horror, it moved. It rose and stretched its body toward the ceiling. She hoped it wasn’t hungry. Watching it carefully, she saw it staring back at her.
It began walking toward her, and she panicked.
Where could she hide? In that little hollow castle? Wait, where did that come from? She darted into its comforting walls and peered out cautiously. Pieces of food glided down from the sky through her line of vision. When she swam out, she saw the creature’s hand above the surface, dumping her precious bounty.
That thing fed her? Fattening her up, maybe. She wouldn’t eat it.
It walked away, and, more at ease, she began swimming again. Another fish was swimming toward her. She had never seen the fish before. Or the kelp forest. Or the tiny sign. And what was that bulbous, horrendous thing with all its holes and platforms doing on her floor?
She had often thought of these things, over and over and over again.
Having a memory span of only a minute can do that to you.
Too bad she would never know it.
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