It looked like a suicide...my favorite goldfish found lifeless on my shag carpeting, hardened by this morning's sun.
A four inch vertical jump! Straight up through an opening not large enough for a two-year-old to drop his legos.
It's a mystery.
My husband tells me this behavior is common for carp. But, not HeyZeus, I think as the tears well up in my eyes.
HeyZeus, my miracle fish. He suffered and survived three days of my naive aquatic care. He skimmed the surface of my flower-vase-turned-fish-bowl, gasping for air.
On that third day last August, as he lay listless near the neck of the vase, I pet him, praying he would rise again in the 30 gallon tank my aunt and cousin had donated to the wonderment of my toddler.
Aunt Carol did not believe that day, while the skinny little goldfish appeared to be taking his last breathe. But 10-year-old-Cousin-Claire was on my side. She leaned over the tank full of faith and hope. She believed that HeyZeus would rise again and flutter over the beautiful sea glass gems she had found to adorn the bottom of his new home.
Within an hour in the new waters, sprinkled with bacteria from Claire's back-yard pond, HeyZeus got his spark back. Aunt Carol was bewildered by the miracle she had just witnessed and seemed to put her trust into the faith of her child for a moment. She named him HeyZeus. You get it... don't you?
HeyZeus quickly became the lead of the tank. He greeted me when I would meditate on his neighbors, the snails. He tipped his nose above the surface like a puppy on hind legs begging for a treat. Recently on odd bunch of eggs cropped up on a floating branch. HeyZeus reacted strangely to the new life in the tank, rarely leaving their side and distracting the others from the white cloudy pods. Perhaps that was what he was thinking when he leapt over the light early this morning. Sacrificing himself for the life to come...
I am truly saddened by the loss.
Thank you, HeyZeus, for surviving in the first place.
Thank you, Claire, for believing.
