HOME | DD

Description
Its eyes bulged and the scales gleamed in the sun while its body jumped and twisted and the air was too hot. "Normally their eyes don't bulge like this, and their tails usually aren't so big and flowy, it's just that they've been bred this way. These are mutated fish, really," she said. I regarded her with awe. Genius. The small meaty body flipped over and over in her hand, slapping wetly, its mouth puffing, gasping for breath. The other day some other girl wondered why it couldn't breathe in what she was breathing in so easily. At first I took no notice, it was just the way things were. There was other stuff to worry about, like swings that groaned when I swung too high and the bouncing plastic ponies and the twirly round things and climbing away everywhere. But now she stood here in front of me clutching this, and I stared at it curiously, it having all of my attention finally. I tried to remember something that I'd read somewhere, or maybe that someone had told me, that they breathed the same stuff I did, oxygen, that there was oxygen in water, but it was just different, or something. But I couldn't figure out why it had hurt behind my nose when I tried to snort in water and breathe in the pool. That had been a bad day. In the place behind my nose it got slick and raw and felt weird when I sniffed. Remembering this, I came to the conclusion that the oxygen here and the oxygen there weren't the same after all.

"Why is it so different?" I asked, touching the slippery body and the gaping mouth.

"Like how?"

I couldn't think of how to say my question right. "How come it can stay underwater longer than I can?"

"I don't know. But I think it's 'cause..." She squeezed the plump thing in her palm, and its eyes bulged a little more. "Maybe there's something inside of it that's helping it stay like that. Something hiding inside of it that we can't see. Like invisible. You want to see it?" She crouched down and I bent down with her to get a closer look. "Let's see if I'm right." By now it had stopped jumping as much, but when she pushed in her fingernails to split it open, it gave this last desperate twitch and flopped out of her hand, back towards the small pool from where it was scooped. She picked it up again, pried open the split a little more, blood slipping over her small fingers. Inside waited a complete mess. It only confused things more. Juicy stuff trickled and there was some purplish goop. She poked around a bit, but we couldn't find anything of interest. "Oh," she said, disappointed. "There's nothing in here." It disappointed me too.

Description
Its eyes bulged and the scales gleamed in the sun while its body jumped and twisted and the air was too hot. "Normally their eyes don't bulge like this, and their tails usually aren't so big and flowy, it's just that they've been bred this way. These are mutated fish, really," she said. I regarded her with awe. Genius. The small meaty body flipped over and over in her hand, slapping wetly, its mouth puffing, gasping for breath. The other day some other girl wondered why it couldn't breathe in what she was breathing in so easily. At first I took no notice, it was just the way things were. There was other stuff to worry about, like swings that groaned when I swung too high and the bouncing plastic ponies and the twirly round things and climbing away everywhere. But now she stood here in front of me clutching this, and I stared at it curiously, it having all of my attention finally. I tried to remember something that I'd read somewhere, or maybe that someone had told me, that they breathed the same stuff I did, oxygen, that there was oxygen in water, but it was just different, or something. But I couldn't figure out why it had hurt behind my nose when I tried to snort in water and breathe in the pool. That had been a bad day. In the place behind my nose it got slick and raw and felt weird when I sniffed. Remembering this, I came to the conclusion that the oxygen here and the oxygen there weren't the same after all.

"Why is it so different?" I asked, touching the slippery body and the gaping mouth.

"Like how?"

I couldn't think of how to say my question right. "How come it can stay underwater longer than I can?"

"I don't know. But I think it's 'cause..." She squeezed the plump thing in her palm, and its eyes bulged a little more. "Maybe there's something inside of it that's helping it stay like that. Something hiding inside of it that we can't see. Like invisible. You want to see it?" She crouched down and I bent down with her to get a closer look. "Let's see if I'm right." By now it had stopped jumping as much, but when she pushed in her fingernails to split it open, it gave this last desperate twitch and flopped out of her hand, back towards the small pool from where it was scooped. She picked it up again, pried open the split a little more, blood slipping over her small fingers. Inside waited a complete mess. It only confused things more. Juicy stuff trickled and there was some purplish goop. She poked around a bit, but we couldn't find anything of interest. "Oh," she said, disappointed. "There's nothing in here." It disappointed me too.