The Tale of Very Old Fish
Created | Updated Jul 28, 2019
The Tale of Very Old Fish
This tale actually starts way before Very Old Fish was very old.
He was still a fish, of course, just not a very old one, rather a young fish in fact.
The fish (who would grow to be Very Old) started life in a rather large and very pleasant outdoor pond. Learning to swim and eat, and be, well, fishy.
Then, one winter's morning, he and his neighbours were rather suddenly and unceremoniously scooped up into little green nets and then, even more unceremoniously, tipped into bright blue plastic containers.
The fish (who feared he wouldn't get much older after that morning) was later tipped, a little more gently, into a glass aquarium, along with several of his friends and neighbours.
Some excuse about Tench and Carp being like 'bloody backyard sharks' to these little fellas, and he was left to live in the glass tank, (looking out at the strange things that lived in a flat – that wasn't actually flat) eating, and being a bit more fishy.
A few more Winters and the fish (who was still young in the scheme of things – indeed, most of his mates were now either looking ancient or had stopped swimming and had been scooped up and taken off to the little room with the water) impatiently waited to be scooped up.
The others dreaded the room with the water, but he loved it!
Once or twice a week, the strange creature who fed him would ever so gently lower the special net into the tank and make funny sounds until he swam into the net and lay still. She would run into the room with the water and release him into a much bigger tank, (called a bathtub), and sit for ages, showing her teeth, while he had a bloody good swim.
One day the flat was not there. Instead he was taken out of the cramped container he'd been placed into, and released into a bright blue and green paradise, luscious plants, places to hide, real live insects to eat, and even a waterfall that made his world deliciously fresh and tickly.
He thought he'd died and gone to a better place, but his new neighbours explained he was now living 'outside' and it was perfectly safe….apart from the heron, hide if you feel a shadow above you, herons were not nice to fish!
Fish (now in his prime) spent seven more years, watching his neighbours come and go, learning how to talk frog, and generally having a whale of a time (although he'd never met a whale, so couldn't actually comment on their lifestyles).
Winter came again. Old Fish (for he was actually outliving the hell out of his peers) was once again scooped up. The waterfall had stopped and there was ice in the air.
Another glass tank, this time with heated water and a filter that bubbled away in the corner. Not as huge as 'outside', but the neighbours were nice, if a little cosmopolitan, and he liked playing in the diving helmet that had strangely found its way into his world.
Old Fish still occasionally had his treat of swimming in the tub, but the water seemed colder now he was used to Central Heating, the strange creature who fed him had changed too, she'd grown higher, making fewer strange noises, showing her teeth less to him and, eventually, leaving his care to a smaller creature who was much more attentive.
Very Old Fish didn't feel too good. He felt lethargic and had no appetite, he stayed still in the bath, just wanting to go back to the nest he'd made in the diving helmet, and rest his weary fins. Both the female creatures looked worried.
One day some old creature, vaguely familiar (but Very Old Fish's memory wasn't…erm...), tapped a finger against the tank, and made noises at him.
'Wow! Can't believe you still have him, what's it been, twelve years?'
'About that, the kids have started calling him Very Old Fish! Indestructible bloody fish more like it, but I think the poor thing's on his way out, still, he's had a good run, mate!'
'They don't do well in tanks, that's why people think they're short-lived, now that pond you had in number nine, ideal, as close to the wild as you can get - for a back garden. They can live for twenty odd years you know? Looked after and given the room to swim. Think the record's 40 even!'
The little strange creature sat and listened, sad eyes watching Very Old Fish resting in the bubbly diving helmet in his tank, then she ran off to find the higher one.
And so, the very next morning, Very Old Fish was carefully coaxed out of the diving helmet, and taken to a beautiful little stream that fed a beautifully secluded pond, not only 'outside' but in the 'wild'.
Very Old Fish gazed up thankfully at the strange creatures who had loved him (even though it wasn't cool to admit it the higher they grew!), and now gathered on the bank to wish him well.
They needn't be sad, Very Old Fish felt the freshness of the water, felt the wonderfully natural pull of the current, felt young again!
He splashed the surface in thanks to the strange creatures who had let him swim, and shot off as fast as he could – to see if he could break some records!
Years later, my strange creatures now grown even higher, we sometimes walk the dog by the stream, still looking for a Very Very Very Old Fish, we like to think he's still in there, setting records, and maybe, just maybe, he is?
