Short Stories

Speaking with an Empty Pond

Koi fish can have very long and relatively peaceful lives. They can live to be 200 years old, though that is quite unusual. Koi fish often live in ponds and have been around for millions of years. There is a Japanese myth about a group of koi who swam upriver until they reached a waterfall, at this point many koi turned back, though some continued. One strong and brave koi reached the top of the waterfall and was rewarded by the gods. It is said that the single koi to reach the top of the waterfall was transformed into a golden dragon. The story you are about to begin may be of a koi who nearly made it, or possibly a barely related descendant. Though judging by the koi’s attitude it is unlikely that it ever even considered undertaking the hard journey up the waterfall. It is even possible that this story has nothing to do with any of the koi who bravely swam upstream.

Kashia had once been a koi fish, but for some reason, which shouldn’t concern you, she became a water nymph. She had only been in her nymph form for about seven years, though as a koi she had been around for over fifty. She lived a simple life, pondering the ripples in the small pond she lived in for hours each day. Her life had never changed, even after becoming a nymph. Perhaps it never would. She had no reason to do anything and thought very little of her lack of activity. It was a slightly cloudy day when a teenage boy with dark brown hair approached the side of her pond muttering to himself.

He stomped up to the pond making somewhat unpleasant thumps and then flopped himself down on a rock and yelled a number of rude words into the air. It occurred to Kashia that this was rude: to come to her peaceful pond so unpleasantly and let his idea of the day explode out of his mouth, but he quieted down quickly. She probably wouldn’t have done anything even if he had continued. 

“Stupid.” He said. He repeated himself, “Stupid.” It was as if he wanted to feel the word and understand all of its meaning, or perhaps he was already well acquainted with what the word was expressing. To Kashia the word seemed quite boring and she easily ignored him. Unfortunately, he decided to remove his shoes and kick his feet around in the water. This would have been fine for Kashia to ponder for as long as he would stay. It would have been, if he hadn’t kicked her. Kashia therefore would have had no reason to want him to leave and let her return to sitting uselessly at the bottom of the pond. Regrettably, he kicked her. Kashia was then given a simple reason for wanting him to go away, but due to her complete lack of motivation she did nothing.

Kashia soon allowed the whole kicking ordeal to slip away from her thoughts and quietly listened to him repeating “stupid” over and over again using a variety of different voices. She soon found herself repeating the word to herself. She pondered how it might be spelled, even though she had no idea how to read or write. She eventually realized that she really didn’t know what he might be talking about and why he believed that he lacked intelligence. The matter didn’t concern Kashia so she abandoned her thoughts of the subject for more simple ones about the color of the sky. While thinking about the sky she decided to float up to the surface, and as her face broke into the daylight she remembered her “stupid” visitor. She might have worried that he would be shocked when he saw her, but she didn’t really care. He wasn’t shocked by seeing her, despite her central location of appearance, due to the simple truth that he was unable to see her.

He continued to stare at the pond, which reflected the clouds as if they were actually below him and not high above his head. He soon decided to speak to the pond though he had no expectations that it would listen. Kashia paid no attention to him, but in some corner of her mind she was listening.

“Hey, pond,” the boy said nonchalantly, as if he often talked to inanimate objects. Kashia looked at him, not that he would notice or care, and he continued speaking, “maybe you can help me sort things out.” Kashia decided that maybe he was stupid to think that the water would be able to help him, even talking to a lily pad would make more sense because at least it was alive. She took a slight, very slight, interest in his words addressed to the pond.

“I keep on agreeing to do more tasks. I can’t really help it. I want to be able to help so many people, but I already have plenty of things to do on my own. I feel obligated to do all these things and I don’t think I’ll have any free time for the next week!” At this point his stupidity became clear to Kashia and she said to herself, “So that is why he thinks he is stupid, it makes sense.” A new expression entered the boy’s face, possibly one of confusion or one of quiet realization that the pond really didn’t have anything to say, but Kashia wasn’t looking. She was only listening, and her entertainment had just fallen silent. She looked over at him and his face was somewhat unhappy, with confusion or anticipated disappointment she did not pay enough attention to notice. He sighed loudly and kicked at the water. A large frog was startled by the sudden movement and leaped into the water. Kashia told the boy quite loudly that she intended to tell him what she thought he should be doing, whether he listened or not she didn’t care. To the boy it may have seemed as if the pond had just decided to talk to him or he may have merely been surprised by the large frog. He stared momentarily, and then proceeded to make himself very annoying by throwing little rocks into the pond for no particular reason.

Kashia decided to get out of the water and join him on the rock to tell him her opinion on his problem and possibly even make him go away leaving her to her calm and uneventful life in the pond. As a water nymph she had a general humanoid form so she merely got up onto the shore and walked over to the rock that the boy sat on. If he had been able to see her he may have been surprised by her pale white skin, dark hair and flowing orange dress that reached to just below her knees and had no sleeves. As far as humans go she was quite pretty. If he had been aware of the pretty girl getting out of the pond and knew what he was not seeing he may have been slightly dismayed, but due to his complete ignorance his lack of seeing meant nothing to him.

Kashia sat down next to him not caring or noticing that he did not know she was there. She proceeded to give him what she thought was logical, and obvious, advice, “You really shouldn’t do so much, I do almost nothing at all. It is just fine not doing anything, you should try it sometime. Maybe you should pass some of your jobs off to other people, or you could tell people that you have important nothingness to attend to and can’t do what they want you to.” Kashia thought maybe she should listen to herself and tell someone else to take care of this annoying boy so she could relax. She was about to do just that when the boy got up.

“Thank you.” He said, “I will think about what you have said.” He smiled slightly, though he thought that what he had been doing at the pond was somewhat silly. The boy walked away, and Kashia thought that she had done a lot of work that day. With that thought in mind she stood up and dived into the water to float about with an empty mind for a long time before she would sit around doing absolutely nothing. She lay at the bottom of the pond looking up at the ripples she had left in the pond, though they may have only been the echoes of the boy’s feet leaving the water. She may not have been noticed by the boy or the pond.