Short Stories

Bradley The Goldfish

"There once was a time where kids could be kids, but now such a time is lost. Innocence has been drained from our minds, and now we're exposed to the cruelty of this world. It was so much better playing pretend, though now we face reality head on, and I guess that's what's so scary. This is how it is, and it takes so much to change that, that it's almost impossible. No wonder Bradley killed himself."

"Bradley was a goldfish."

"Bradley had feelings just as you and I do."

"He didn't kill himself. He choked on a pebble. I hope you know that."

"It was still very tragic!"

Ryan rolled his eyes. "Yeah, just like when Georgie died."

"You promised to never bring that up!" Kyle wailed, sniffling.

"It was a snail-"

"I was very attached to Georgie."

"-That you had for a week."

"It was a very meaningful week!"

"What, just like the one with the cricket?"

"Yes! And it wasn't just a cricket, his name was Jiminy." Kyle stated firmly.

"Riiight." Ryan said, with an air of disinterest. "Like uh, 'Pinocchio'."

"Exactly."

There was a moment of silence between the two as they stared down at the glistening fish's corpse that was lying on a tissue on the table.

"You know, with each one of these pets I'm just starting to think you're getting dumber and dumber."

"Hey!" Kyle smacked Ryan's arm. "Thats mean..!"

"Yeah, and?" Ryan questioned, rubbing the spot on his upper arm where he was struck. Kyle shot him a dirty look before turning back to look at the dead goldfish. He sniffed. "We should bury him."

"I say we flush him. You already have too many bodies in the pet cemetery you've made of our backyard."

Kyle looked at him harshly. "We're burying him." He said sharply.

"Fine."

The two men migrated to the backyard, fish corpse in tow. They had wrapped little Bradley up in the tissue and placed him in a small wooden box they had lying around. Now, Kyle was forcing Ryan to dig the grave as he said his last goodbyes to his beloved goldfish buddy, all the while sniffling and crying. "I'm gonna miss you..!", he wailed, voice cracking. Ryan rolled his eyes, gave a huff and continued to dig the grave with the plastic toy spade- which made it extremely difficult to dig.
Once he was finished, he stood up and admired his work. "There. Now put him in."
Kyle sighed and stepped forward and almost reluctantly placed the now closed wooden box in the tiny hole in the ground. Almost instantly as the box was situated, Kyle burst into tears and backed away slowly. Ryan, paying no mind to his sobbing roommate- as it was normal- began to shovel dirt back into the grave, covering the box containing the fish corpse. Once he was finished, he stood up and tossed the spade onto the freshly made grave, and glanced over at Kyle. Heaving a sigh he turned to face him, held out his arms and mumbled a very faint, "c'mere." Kyle sniffled, studied Ryan's face for a moment to see if he was serious, before falling against the others chest. "That's it," Ryan murmured, wrapping his arms around Kyle. The two stood in silence for a moment before one of them spoke.

"I'm proud of you." Ryan said. Kyle pulled back to look at him.

"Really?" His eyes gleamed with tears and uncertainty. Ryan nodded. "Yeah, you're handling Bradley's death better than Mittens'."

Kyle's face screwed up, and within seconds he started sobbing again.