As Pippa predicted, Fishstick passed away quickly. We looked in on him early Tuesday morning, and he was pointing nose down into the gravel. I found a website which solemnly explained that goldfish feed in the wild like that, so I waited for him to finish his breakfast. At 5 p.m., I began to Suspect Something.
Anyway, #1 and I had already agreed upon our plan. We would go to Dogmart, choose a new fish and then buy a second as well, and tell the two little guys that we'd only gone to buy Fishstick a friend. It sounded good, we rehearsed it and managed to keep our stories straight.
Last night, I got ready to go out, but #3 wanted to come along. Since it's been an icky week and I've been gone a lot taking other kids to the doctor, I didn't think I could say no. After thinking about it, I decided to let #3 in on the deception which we were about to practice upon #4.
"You know about Fishstick??" he asked, sounding absolutely stunned.
Um.
"Uh,yes. Why do you ask?"
"Who told you?" he said. His eyes began to tear up, and his voice was wobbling.
"Well, sweetie, no one told me. I just looked at poor little Fishstick, and saw that he had died."
"You mean, #4 didn't cheat?" he asked suspiciously.
"Cheat?"
"After #4 and I saw Fishstick, we knew it would make you cry if you saw that he was dead, so we decided not to tell you. We didn't want to hurt your feelings."
I promised that #4 hadn't spilled the beans about Fishstick, so #3 felt a lot better. We went to Dogmart together, found Fishstick II and his new friend, a white goldfish named Tartar Sauce. I hope they both have long and happy lives together. I don't know if I can keep fooling these boys for too much longer.
When Poe ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.
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