We asked four different people if we could have some assistance in the "fish" department. That should have been my first clue that maybe the "Fish guy" wasn't actually in, and maybe we needed to come back when someone was around who actually knew what they were doing. But my children were so excited and after about thirty minutes of waiting, a man that looked like the store manager stormed over and helped us fish out two fish. I asked him quite a few questions, which he answered and who knows if he really knew the answer, but it sounded good to me. He handed the bag with the fish to my children who were by now just jumping up and down with excitement, and we headed home.
On the way home, I asked the kids what they would name they're fish. My daughter piped up right away and said, "Little Dorothy." My son, on the other hand, you could tell was weighing his options in his mind. I threw out a few suggestions, from cartoon characters he loved. Each one he turned down. He finally said, "I'm going to name him Lucifer." I couldn't keep back my laughter. I asked him why he wanted to name him Lucifer. He said, "Because that's the cat's name on Cinderella." He asked me why I was laughing. I explained to him that it was because Lucifer was also the name of Satan. He started laughing too, and then he said, "I don't want to name my fish Lucifer. He wants me to do bad things." He kept thinking and thinking, finally settling on the name "Kit Cloudkicker" who is a character from Tale Spin. (My kids new favorite cartoon! Which I love because I get to relive my childhood.)
We brought the fish home, and put the bag in the bowl to acclimatize the fish, (or that's what the man had told me.) After following all the directions I was given, we finally opened the bag and introduced the fish to their new home. Well, from there, things took a turn for the worse.
Literally, within two hours, we had two dead fish, and two bewildered and saddened children. Thankfully, I had told my kids "Now, don't be sad if you're fish die someday. Fish don't live very long." I just hadn't expecting "very long" to be two hours. My dad, who happened to be around for the entirety of the fish' lives said he thought maybe I had filled the bowl with soft water, which fish can't live in. Who knew? Obviously not me, and not the clerk at Wal-Mart.
My son was in tears. My daughter kept saying, "Little Dorothy isn't dead. See! Her eyes are open." My son also began to believe that he's fish wasn't dead, due to the fact that every time he moved the bowl, the fish moved too. I told the kids we would leave the fish alone while we went to the store and see how they were when we returned. Upon returning, a miracle had not happened as of yet, and my kids knew that their little fish were gone. My son was very sad, which was very touching to see. My daughter, like me, almost found it comical. She kept saying, "I'm not sad. MY fish is dead," like it was an everyday occurrence. (Hopefully it won't become so!)
My kids are already excited to get more fish. This time, we are headed to an actual pet store instead of Wal-Mart that simply sells fish because they sell everything else under the sun. And as previously mentioned, hopefully this doesn't become an everyday occurrence. I guess, on the bright side, fish are guaranteed to live for at least a day, so if we keep up at this pace, we will be able to get free fish as replacements.
And so, as my Dad said, "Life is a swim upstream." Or it's a ride down the crapper. However you want to look at it. So ends the tale of two tails.
*As a side note, "Lucifer" sank to the bottom. "Little Dorothy" floated to the top. Coincidence? I don't think so. ha ha*