Keianna

When I was in the third grade I was obsessed with miracle fish. They’re basically mood rings in plastic fish form, what’s not to love? The idea that the little fish seemed to know how I was feeling was amazing to me, which goes to show how lonely I was.

If you knew me at the time you’d probably think there was no way for me to be lonely. Along with my grandma, aunt, and uncle there were seven children around my age living in our house at the time. There was a huge garage-like building behind it that used to be the newspaper headquarters for our small city. That summer, we dragged our trundle beds into it and “camped out.” Whenever I got a minute to myself I’d go in there to cry.

Back to the miracle fish: I got mine during a party at school. One of my classmates dutifully placed one on each of our desks and I was in awe from the time I picked it up. The way it flipped and twisted in my hand to tell me that I was nervous was pure magic.

The day my father came to move me and my siblings back home after a year of living with my mother, I turned into a completely different version of myself. This version no longer needed the close friend that my little miracle fish had become, and I left it in the garage-like structure by mistake. By the time I realized it was gone, I didn’t feel like I needed it anymore.

I left my little miracle fish around this time, years ago. ♦