It looks like we are missing a Freidai night diarist again. Maryalycea to the rescue!
Here are few not-too-onerous PWB rules
- Do not “Troll” the Pootie Peeps Diaries. If you don’t like animal diaries, there’s no need to tell us about it. Just go find some other diary more to your liking.
- Whatever happens in the outer blog STAYS in the outer blog. This is a place to relax and play; please treat it accordingly.
- If you would like a pic from the comment threads, please ask the poster. He/she may have a copyright to those pics. Many thanks!
- There are some pics we never post: snakes, creepy crawlies, any and all photos that depict or encourage human cruelty toward animals. These are considered “out of bounds” and will not be tolerated.
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Previous Neighborhood Stories
Jack’s Pet
Larsson Helps Out
The Golden Goose
The Diet Contest
A Halloween Story
The Great Bird Feeder War
We Gather Together
The Birds
Unwelcome Guests
The Fruit Collector
Farley and the UFO
Georgia had wanted to make it all up to Sam ever since he told her about the guppies. He had told her that when he was six years old, almost seven actually, because it was the end of first grade, he had lost his guppies under mysterious and tragic circumstances.
“Maybe I just wasn't meant to have them,” he said, “but Mrs. Schalk did give them to me.”
What had really happened was that Sam's teacher gave each of the kids a fish or two from the classroom tanks to take home over the summer. She said on the second last day of school she needed everyone to help in this because she already had the toads and the lizards and the ant farm, and she wouldn't have had those if people would support their public schools better. So, on the last day of school the kids brought in containers (Sam's was a chow mein bucket that his mom had rinsed out), and Mrs. Schalk put water and fish in them.
Sam's fish were guppies, two of them, each about an inch long.
“But I guess they're pretty big for guppies, huh,” he said. Mrs. Schalk said she guessed they were.
Sam had to carry the container home about five blocks, so he held it with both hands and never looked away from it except when a crossing guard said, “Hey, watch out!” and for once he was lucky and didn't run into any big dumb fifth-graders.
His mother put the guppies into a round glass bowl with a piece of green weed she said was for air. Sam put in the fish food. His mother said he'd better do that every day from now on, too.
One day about a week later when Sam looked in the fish bowl he saw he had ten guppies—the same two big ones and eight that he could hardly see.
He watched the fish bowl all day, and at night his mother told him four times to go to bed. “They'll still be there in the morning,” she said.
In the morning Sam was back down to two guppies.
The day after that he had just one guppy, a big fat one. The next morning, he came downstairs early because he couldn't sleep very well, and he heard his father saying in the kitchen, “Let's just say it was indigestion.”
And his mother said, “Oh, Roger!” and then she saw Sam and she sniffled, and then she said, “Oh, Sam, I'm so sorry about the last guppy.”
“What's indigestion?” said Sam. All of a sudden his father was really quiet. Sam's mother said, “Well, it could have been that.”
“Been what?” Sam said.
“It could have been something wrong with its stomach that made the fish die,” she said.”
It's dead?” said Sam.
He ran to look in the fishbowl and, sure enough, the last guppy was gone. Actually, even the fish bowl was gone.
“Mom!” he said. His mother said his father had taken the fish away so Sam wouldn't have to see it. She didn't say where.
This was a reasonably impressive experience for a six-year-old, even if he was almost seven. And it didn't help when Sam's nine-year-old brother kept going around making a fish face and then burping.
Almost as soon as Sam told her about it, Georgia decided to find a fish store. She thought she had found one when she saw the sign in the window of a shop on Jefferson Street. It said:
Fiona
Fish and Reptiles a Specialty
Amphibians Sometimes Possible
Georgia didn't notice the window had nothing in it but the sign and a bead curtain across the inside of the glass, so she went in.
It didn't look much like a shop. There were some chairs in it and a round table with big silk scarves draped over it, and there was another bead curtain dividing the place into front and back. After a minute or two a lady stuck her head out between the bead strings and then came in to the front. She had on a long loose purple tie-dye dress and a lot of bracelets and very long bead necklaces. She
held out her hand.
“Hello,” she said. “I am Fiona. “
She had on a lot of rings, too, but Georgia gave the handshake a try anyway.
“How can I help you in your time of sorrow?” Fiona said.
“Huh?” said Georgia.
“You're not the bereaved?” said Fiona
“Oh, no, I'm fine,” Georgia said.
Fiona, said, “Then you must be here on behalf of a friend.” Georgia didn't say anything. Fiona clenched her teeth. “Do you know someone who wishes to contact a beloved pet who has crossed over?”
“Oh!” said Georgia, “Oh, yes! My boyfriend. I mean, his guppies. I mean, he lost them under very mysterious circumstances.”
Fiona nodded. She led Georgia over to one of the chairs and sat her down. She looked very sympathetic. “Tell me,” she said.
Georgia told her the whole story.
When Georgia had finished, Fiona sighed deeply and blotted her eyes with a tissue. “So very sad, she said. And so very typical of our bleak modern existence.”
“I thought maybe I could get him some new ones,” Georgia said. Fiona shook her head. “No, no, dear, she said. First he must lay his late guppies to rest in his heart. Let me tell you what I can do for your beloved.”
Later, when Georgia told Sam about it, he was a little confused. “She's an animal medium?” he said. “How come she doesn't do dogs and cats?”
“She says cats always have to have their own way about it, and if you have too many dog emanations around you don't get your mail.”
“Oh,” said Sam.
“And she doesn't do any kind of rodents because they come in crowds, and you can't tell who's been contacted because they all squeak at once.”
“So it's fish and snakes,” said Sam.
“It's perfect, said Georgia. She's just the person to help you find out what really happened.”
“Sheesh,” said Sam. Then he remembered he was getting kind of serious about Georgia. “Okay,” he said.
When they got back to the shop, Fiona said she had to make some preparations. She locked the shop door and pulled a heavy velvet curtain over the front window and turned on some dim red lights that were hanging around the edges of the ceiling. Then she made Sam and Georgia sit down at the table and she sat down, too.
“Now,” she said, “I must ask you to be very still while we wait for the pet door to open. And please
concentrate hard on the guppies because to be quite honest with you, I can't say exactly what will happen if you don't. Once someone didn't concentrate hard enough on a tarantula and I got some perfectly filthy messages from the roaches I'd sent over myself.”
“There were ten guppies,” Sam said. “For a while anyway.”
“Concentrate on the last one,” said Fiona. “That's the one who will know the whole truth.” She leaned back in her chair. “We call upon the spirit of Sam's last guppy,” she said. “Please answer.”
For a while nothing happened. Then Fiona's cheeks puffed out and her mouth bunched up.
Sam said to Georgia, “You didn't warn me she'd make faces like my obnoxious brother.”
‘Shhh,” said Georgia. Then she said, very softly, “Are you Sam's last guppy?”
Fiona made a very low three-note gurgle. “That could be yes,” said Georgia.
“Huh?” said Sam.
“Please tell us what happened in the fish bowl,” said Georgia.
Fiona's cheeks started moving in and out very fast. “Gulp!” she said. “Ulp, ulp, ulp, ulp, ulpulpulp! Gormph!” Then she was quiet again.
“That's nine, so far,” thought Sam.
“What next?” said Georgia.
“Thwip!” said Fiona. “Splot! Ploik! Blorp!” She stood up, waving her arms up and down. “Soo-ooo-ooo-oosh!” she said. She was moving her whole body in kind of a spiral. She went faster and faster. “Yurrttle!” she said. Then she dropped back hard into her chair. She looked like she was asleep.
“Oh, dear, now what?” said Georgia?
Sam was fuming. “I knew it all along,” he said. “They flushed him.”
“Oh, poor Sam,” Georgia said. Then Fiona came to.
“I trust you received a satisfactory message?” she said.
“Well…” said Sam.
“Oh, we got lots of information,” said Georgia. “Lots. Yes, we did.”
Fiona smiled. “Good,” she said. “I accept all major credit cards.”
At lunch Georgia said to Sam, “Well, is it time to get some more guppies? I could give them to you for your birthday.”
“Thanks,” said Sam, “I guess I don't really need any now. But let’s skip Red Lobster for a while.”