Goodbye Oliver
Welcome to this children's story page!
Part One: Love On First Sight
I think I fell in love with Oliver the first time that I saw him!
That Saturday morning was a kind of dreary looking, late November day. The weather was just beginning to be a little bit on the cool side. Winter was coming too quickly for my liking. As I began to get ready to go out, a few rain drops had started to fall, but I could see that it was not enough rain for me to get really wet or even to persuade me that I might need an umbrella.
I was determined that I was going to go out and buy a betta fish that day, whether it was raining or not. There was absolutely nothing that was going to stop me. I had thought about it all week.
The first time I had ever seen a betta fish was in a floral shop. I was totally amazed when I first saw them. They had been placed into glass containers of various shapes and sizes, with several bamboo shoots that had roots growing into the water, through a little dish with holes placed on the top of the container. The betta fish swam serenely in amongst the roots of the plants. The floral shop had quite a large number of the containers with beautiful fish that were various shades of red, purple, blue and green. The colors of the betta fish were fantastic!
As I watched them swim about, I was told by the florist that each male betta fish had to be placed in a fish bowl by itself, as it would attack and possibly kill other male betta fish, if placed in the same container or aquarium. (I don't know if I really believed that then or if I believe that even now.) But that was how my curiosity and interest in betta fish began.
They were just a little bit beyond my budget for that week or I really might have gone home with one right then and there, even though it would have cost me an arm and a leg at florist prices.
Several weeks later, the week before I found Oliver, I had walked into our corner store to buy something. Beside the cash register, there was a doorway that opened into a pet store. As I paid for my purchase, I could hardly believe what I saw through the doorway!
The pet store had a whole table top full of rose bud bowls, each containing one betta fish. What a wonderful surprize! Talk about a variety of colors! I decided to take a closer look.
As I drew closer to look at them, I was totally enraptured once again. The owner of the pet store was a gentle, soft spoken young woman that I had come to know a bit from my frequent visits to the store but I never did get to know her name.
I asked her a few brief questions about betta fish and then told her, in no uncertain terms, that I would be back to buy one. I didn't really have enough time that day to purchase one, as I was on my way to work.
I decided that I really should not take a betta fish to work anyhow, although the thought did enter my mind. I was happy to learn from her, that betta fish can be quite affordable.
It was starting to get colder and dark earlier in the evening. The winters in northern Ontario can be very dark and long.
I decided that I needed a pet to keep me company. I made up my mind that I was going to come back to get one later on in the week. I don't know what I found so fascinating about them.
Perhaps it was because they were just so pretty. Maybe I just did not like the thought of one little fish swimming all alone in a glass container.
May be I just needed a friend that day!
Part Two: Going to buy a betta fish
I knew that I was about to get wet as I left home that Saturday, but that really was not what I was thinking about as I started out. Wearing a jacket with a hood that I could pull up over my head, if I really needed to do so, I wasn't worried about getting too wet.
What was really on my mind, was the question of whether or not I could get my betta fish home without him getting cold and catching pneumonia, (or whatever it is that fish get when they get too cold). I had a letter that I needed to deliver as well that day. It was tucked into my big black purse and it would be dry enough in there. Where I had to take it, was about a mile's walk in terms of distance and it was downhill all the way there.
I had no sooner walked about half a block, when I met one of my neighbours, a sweet, elderly gentleman who was walking his three dogs on leashes. I wondered how he kept their leashes from getting tangled up, but he seemed to be managing just fine.
Lovely dogs, I thought, and such a congenial person to talk with as well! We chatted very briefly.
But I wanted to get going to buy my betta fish. That was front and centre in my mind. But first I had to walk that mile to deliver the letter. So I graciously made my exit.
I had no sooner gone a few more steps down the street, when I met a younger man, also a neighbor. "Hi!" he said. "Where you off to today?" I was not about to reveal to him that I was going to buy a betta fish, although I knew that he would have loved to have me stand there and tell him about it. "Just off to do a few things I need to do," I said in a gentle, quiet and friendly manner. I knew that this man had been quite ill over the past six months. He was such a nice guy that I hated to walk away from him.
"Want a ride?" he asked. Any other day, I thought to myself. I just wanted to go and buy my fish. He had never asked me if I wanted a ride before that. "No thanks," I replied. "Need to get some exercise!" I said, as I headed down the street and around the corner.
It was starting to rain a bit heavier and there was no doubt that I was going to get wet, but I really did not want to answer any more questions, or stand there making casual conversation in the rain. I began to walk quite quickly, pulling my hood up over my head, so that I wouldn't get too drenched.
The air seemed so fresh and clean, as I got closer to the lake at the bottom of the hill. The leaves had now fallen off most of the trees and it was quite slippery where they had settled in the crevices on the sidewalks. I had to be a bit more careful, I decided as I walked along. I really could not afford to have a tumble.
There was a heavy fog over most of the Lake Superior that morning and I could barely see the Sleeping Giant in the distance. This historical landmark had a way of disappearing every once in a while. Some days it seemed as if there was no Giant there at all and on those days, it looked like the Giant was merely an optical illusion. But then, when the weather cleared and the sun came out, there was the Giant back again, looming larger than ever on the horizon. Sometimes it seemed to be much closer than at other times.
It wasn't long before I had delivered the letter and headed homeward, still walking at a good pace, in spite of the fact that it was now uphill almost all of the way. It was still raining but a bit less than it had been earlier.
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