Goobye Oliver (Part Four)

Goodbye Oliver (Part Four)

Part Four: Welcome Home, Oliver

Now, all I had to do was to walk up the hill the rest of the way and get Oliver safely home.

I had done it. I had bought a betta fish! I was just as pleased as punch.

'Splish-splash' went my wet shoes as I walked along. 'Splish-splash' resounded the water in the bottom of the rose bowl. Hope you are all right my little fish friend, I thought and silently spoke to him as I made my way homeward. I slipped on one of the crevices filled with leaves. I just cannot go for a tumble now, I thought, catching my balance just in time.

If only there had been more water in the bowl! I had visions of him banging up against the side of the bowl and injuring himself. I wondered if he'd be hurt. I was worried about him because this had to be a pretty rough ride for him.

It was getting quite a bit cooler by the time I got home. By then, there was no one in sight. I was glad. I was wondering what they would have thought seeing me carrying a cardboard so gingerly.

But as it turned out, there was no need to worry or for any explanations, as it seemed that everyone had headed indoors to be out of the rain. Now little tiny snowflakes had started to form. It was actually beginning to snow! A cool breeze was blowing from the north, as I turned the corner towards the comfort of my home and walked directly into the wind.

As I entered the doorway, I was really, really glad to be at home. I was cold, but I was also very concerned about what I would find when I opened the box and took off the plastic bag from the top of the rose bowl.

Quickly, I opened the box and dug the paper towel packing out of the box very carefully, finding the box of betta fish food and the still intact rose bowl that now had less than a half an inch of water in the bottom, in spite of the plastic bag over the top of the rim. Oliver, my new betta fish, seemed to be all right, but for some strange reason he was extremely quiet, as if in a state of shock.

I waited and watched him for a moment. Finally, after what seemed to be forever, I saw him start to swim around the bottom of the bowl. He did one turn and then went back to perching on his fins on the bottom of the bowl.

This is not good, I decided. It was time to put him into a larger container. He was just too quiet. I decided that rather than wait for the next two days for some new water, I would just transfer him into a larger container of water that I had left sitting on the kitchen counter, to use for watering my collection of orchids.

It had been there about twenty four hours. I could not find the chlorine pellets anywhere. Somehow, they had not been included, probably because of all of the chaos in the pet store with the old man and his dog, and the younger couple and their kittens.

I knew that it was going to be risky to put him into the water but I weighed the risk and decided that it was riskier to not put him into more water. I located the container that was destined to be his new home. First, I washed it out carefully and then I washed a handful of amythest rock that
I had collected and carefully placed them into the container. Then I filled it up with the day old water.

Next, very carefully, I transferred Oliver into the larger container. He was still acting really sluggish, as if stunned. I started to wonder if he was all right or if he had been injured by all of the bouncing around while I had been walking home. Maybe he was too cold? He just was not swimming, only lying there on the bottom of the container, simply doing nothing.

I waited for a while and still nothing happened. As it was beginning to get dark, I lit a candle and placed it beside him. I thought he was a goner for sure. I could hardly belief that he might not have been able to survive the move from the pet store.

Finally, I placed a plant beside him. That seemed to arouse his curiosity a bit. I was not quite certain why. I began to wonder what would happen if I put a plant in the container with him. I knew that fish generally thrive in a place where there are water plants, but this plant was not a water plant. It was simply a house plant.

I wished that I had bought a bamboo plant to put into the container, as I knew that was what I had seen in the containers at the floral shop. The spider plant that I had was getting a collection of brand new shoots.

Carefully, I cut one off and left a long stem on it so that I could move it about in the container of water. This plant could kill him, if the walk home didn't injure him already. What if it made him sick? I started talking to him, as silly as it seems. Imagine me, talking to a betta fish named Oliver!

Quietly, I placed the cutting from the spider plant in the container beside with him and suddenly, to my sheer amazement, he began to swim about, in and out amongst the leaves of the spider plant.

First, he would go one way and then turn about and go the other way, up and down, back and forth, as if exploring his new world excitedly. He almost seemed to be scratching his back on the leaves.

Suddenly, I began to get excited too. I gave him a few pellets of his betta fish food and watched as he raced for them and hurriedly gobbled them down. He was very hungry! (Why did that not surprize me?)

So this was not going to be a 'Goodbye Oliver!' scenario after all, I realized, as I watched him chase his reflection in the mirror created by the candlelight. Instead, it was going to be something totally different. "Welcome home, Oliver!" I said breathing a huge sigh of relief. "Welcome home!"

I knew then that Oliver was going to be just fine. I also knew that he realized that he had found a new home!