Strange fish

by Matt Kendrick

은 하

the living-room carpet is a fever of wrapping paper scrunched into balls / it is Christmas day / Peter has bought a bicycle for his angelfish / Charlotte is staring at me as if I’m the last remaining Brussels sprout / her lips are loose from the ten o’clock sherry / the children’s are looser / they tell me I am old because I still use emojis / face with diagonal mouth emoji / face in clouds emoji / at dinner, Mother moans because we are an uneven number / catering for nine is apparently much more challenging than catering for eight or ten / I say I am sorry / it is an odd thing to have to apologise for / being single / I move the conversation sideways by asking Peter about the bicycle / he says it’s to help the fish build its self-esteem / he quotes Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need / we all need food, shelter, clothing, sleep, family, friends, romantic connections / but do we? I ask / Charlotte stares / Peter looks confused / we return to safer waters after that / family traditions / the food / crackers / charades / the King’s speech / the four o’clock lullaby of my father’s afternoon snooze / this is when Charlotte has the idea of Emily / Emily needs a boyfriend, she says / I’m too exhausted to invent a creative way of saying no / the children, meanwhile, are on a sugar high / they’ve jettisoned the expensive Airfix models my mother bought them and are having a fight with imaginary swords / my mother is face with symbols over mouth emoji / my father snores / Charlotte suggests a week on Tuesday for the date with Emily / I tell her I can’t / she tries a week on Wednesday, a week on Thursday / when Peter gets to his feet, he does that thing where he brushes his clothes for imaginary crumbs / head / shoulders / knees / toes / where are you going? I ask / to give Angelica her present / did you know angelfish groom each other as part of their mating habits? asks Charlotte / she has a knack of coming out with things that tie together an occasion’s disparate threads / fish / cleanliness / mating habits / Emily / I think she could scrub out the idea of Emily and set me up with Angelica instead / imagine the scene / we could share a romantic dinner of freeze-dried bloodworms / then we could go for a ride on Angelica’s new bicycle before deciding we don’t need either a bicycle or a romantic connection / we’re quite happy as we are / strange fish / swimming about in comfortable circles of our own

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Matt Kendrick is a writer, editor and teacher based in the East Midlands, UK. His work has been featured in various journals and anthologies including Best Microfiction, Best Small Fictions, Cheap Pop, Craft Literary, Fractured Lit, Ghost Parachute, MoonPark Review, Tiny Molecules, and the Wigleaf Top 50.