The Color Of Hunger

So I wake up at like 11ish. By Mom. Excited and ancy over how the family’s taking a trip to the pet store. For Angelfish. For her new fish tank she got off Craigslist less than 24 hours ago. I swear to god the woman’s hypnotized by it. It’s crazy, but hey atleast it’s a healthy obsession, right? Right? Haha.
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So we get to NW Seed And Pet and come out holding 7 water baggies full of these freaky-ass fish whose species name I can’t even pronounce. “They’ll be fine in those bags, right? They have enough oxygen, correct? Go faster honey, I think Goldy’s too cold.” Not even kidding you, she was worried about these damn creatures the entire way home.
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Mentally scarred from all the ridiculous questions Mom was blindly asking (not one was answered), we get home and the second the key kissed the door, she was off and running. It was like returning home from an intense heist but instead of money and drugs, she toted 1 pound water bags housing exotic fish. Haha! So there we are surrounding the fish tank, all 5 of us, closely watching Mom drop these guys one by one into the tank. Keep in mind that one of the fish in the tank prior to all the new additions is a puffer. And puffers are not the friendliest of folk.
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About four fish in, she drops in this beautiful Tetra, the pride and joy of todays family outing. Everything’s fine and peachy for the first couple of seconds. Suddenly Mr. Puffer goes psycho. And I mean absolutely bat-shit. The poor Tetra is launched into oblivion as she tries to outswim the puffer’s deadly wrath. But it’s too late. Tetra is dead. Mom is in shock. And I am laughing my ass off. Laughing my fucking ass off! You have no idea. I seriously couldn’t stop. There’s something about wicked fast little fish fighting each other that hits both my funny bones at the same time. Haha!
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After the horrific manslaughter of Tetra, Mom began solemnly scooping her bloody remains from the bottom of the tank and remained silent for the rest of the day. Although she hasn’t plotted any revenge on Mr. Puffer….yet….mwahahahaha!