At Least 5 Paragraphs

The Box

September 2016

I remember my sister's face like the map we had drawn to the box. She, looked down in dismay to the ground. Mourning the loss of a friend that we've help grow since, well, as long as we've been alive. Tripping over every syllable trying to say her name. En gle, was her name as my teeth were regrowing through my stretched out gums. I couldn't feed her until I learned to say her name correctly. So my older sister used to over feed her, letting the sides of the tank fill with crud, leaving me to clean it out.

Ain-gel, became her name as my eyes struggled to focus on the vowels shown in the books and short stories my brother would write for his book buddy. Over the course of the year, my little sister was finally able to speak; Emily, being the youngest was able to take care of the tank too. Of course, like everyone has, she had spilled all of the food into the tank. Reaching in with her stubby youthful fingers, struggling to find them all, she pulls out one of the fake plants. She wasn't allowed to feed them again.

My Angel, my whole galaxy of stars, and planets. The only friend that's always been with me, that has survived more than one overdose of fish flakes. Angel, please come back to me, I know you can see the light blue sea in your eyes. But you can't leave just yet. I still need you to take me to my new home, and to my new school. We all need you. I see your pearly white scales, and see the first snowfall with both of my sisters, but now when I see you... I see nothing but crud. Crud smeared across the walls of our time together, the walls of the Nike shoe box coffin you'd be staying in if you didn't come back. Come back.

We each dug once next to the shudder-some willow tree. Getting down on our knees ready to pray, the sun blazing on us, like its mom telling us to do our homework on a Saturday. The barren soil soaked up every salted tear dropping from our rosed cheeks, until the salt dried it out for good. Sitting there, for what seemed as weeks, but only a mere hour, just staring at her last home. She might have just been a fish for some people, but for the 5 of us, she was a whole lifetime packed into 4 centimeters.