The Water Cure by Percival Everett

Author:Percival Everett
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-55597-018-5
Publisher: Graywolf Press
Published: 2010-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

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Lane’s goldfish, named Goldie, was not quite floating on his orange-and-white mottled side, but he was close enough to it, close enough that veterinary attention would merely have been cosmetic. Lane stared at the world of her fish on her bedside table, the orange glow of the Cinderella lamp behind it, with a kind of illusive indifference in her brown eyes. Her sharper-than-mine five-year-old mind asked, “Do people eat goldfish?”

I told her they did not, though I remembered stories of lily-white fraternity boys swallowing them live and wiggling in keg-crazed hazing parties.

“So, he’s going to die?”

“I’m afraid so?”

“Why?”

“All animals die. Some live longer than others, but all of them die,” I told her.

“No, I mean why are you afraid?”

It took me a couple of beats to catch up. “‘I’m afraid so’ is just a figure of speech, an expression, just a way of saying that a thing is going to happen, and we can’t do anything about it.”

“I might have overfed Goldie.” It was not so much a confession as a statement of fact.

“Maybe. Maybe we all did.” We stared at the sick fish awhile longer, and then I picked up the bowl, the sides cool against my palms. “Well, I guess I’ll take Goldie into the backyard and bury him. Do you want to come?”

She shook her head.

“You’re just going to stay in here?”

“I’m afraid so.”

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