Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Addendum

PEA: I am excited about the new fish; don't get me wrong. I just don't want to get attached, because I'm still sad.

BOY: Oh, yes, about the snails.

PEA: Snails? Don't you mean the hermit crab?

BOY: (silence; trapped and guilty look)

PEA: WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SNAILS?

BOY: Well, two of them died.

PEA: (deep breath) Aha. I suppose that was the same day you told me I should probably stop counting the snails every morning?

BOY: (searching for words)

1 comment:

Kate Rosenberg said...

One time there was a turtle tank. In the tank were two baby turtles. One was a very funny little slider and the other was a very adorable snapper. And then one day, there was only one. I looked and looked and it was nowhere. Nowhere near the tank, nowhere in the tank. I can still hardly bear to think about that wee baby turtle getting out and dying behind a piece of furniture. Which it did, as it turns out. Meanwhile, there have been conversations in this house about resurrecting the turtle tank. But my heart is still broken. What to do? Oh, I know, either stop loving the pets until my heart breaks or stop having the damn pets. What do we do, my p? p.s. the slider died soon after, I contend, from a broken heart. That hypothesis didn't go over well with my hubber.