The fishes arrived from a friend. I cleaned the first three — only one was left. As I picked the last one (it was big), I could see it was still breathing.
It’s’ mouth hung open. It gasped for breath. I had never seen (before that) a breathing fish at close quarters. I was a bit frightened, and didn’t know what to do? I couldn’t cut into a living creature while it was still breathing. I left it on the kitchen counter, and left to get on with the other tasks for the day.
I came back to the kitchen after a gap of three hours, thinking by now the fish must have conked off. It wasn’t so — it was still breathing. I felt an un-explained fear in my heart. I rang the bell for the help to come, and take it away.
For days I was haunted by the fish that wouldn’t die. What was keeping it alive? I don’t know. For a year, or so I couldn’t eat fish, and the ones I had cleaned that day — I sent them to a neighbor.
DAILY PROMPT
Breath
Write a new post in response to today’s one-word prompt.
https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/breath/
This post is different but effective. In my opinion we all have an uneasy relationship with other living creatures on our plate!
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Sounds like the catfish my husband caught years ago.
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It was surviving without water making me fear it wasn’t a fish but something else. Can a catfish remain alive without water for a long stretch of time?
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Apparently that one could. The boys were out there trying to kill it for ages too. It didn’t want to die. I’m not fond of catfish and that one was particularly ugly.
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Thank you for letting me know what type of fish it was.
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