A Pet
by Cynthia Rylant
The year she was ten, Emma begged so hard for a Christmas pet that her parents finally relented and gave her the next best thing: a goldfish. Her father, who was a lawyer, had argued for many years that money could buy better things than flea collars, that Emma did not need a pet, that Emma had seen too many Walt Disney movies. Her mother, also a lawyer, argued that Emma should spend more time with her viola, not with an animal. But that December, her parents decided to put an end to the debate. They bought a goldfish and an aquarium from a young man who was moving out of town. They got the goldfish cheap because used goldfish are hard to unload onto someone else, but mainly because this particular goldfish was old and blind.
Even Emma’s parents couldn’t stoop to give her a used aquarium with a used fish on Christmas morning, so; instead, on the tenth of December they put a tank in her room, where she found it after school.
When Emma dropped her books on her bed, she took one look toward the corner and said, “What on earth?” At first she couldn’t imagine why an aquarium would be in her room. The word “fish” was so far from the word “pet.” But her parents explained cheerfully that indeed the fish was the pet she had asked for, and she understood ruefully that it would be this fish or nothing.
The fish came already named by its former owner, who had called it Joshua. Emma didn’t mind the name. In fact, for a wrinkled, sightless, overgrown goldfish, most names just wouldn’t have seemed right. Joshua, at least, was a natural name-old and natural.
In time, Emma came to like the fish after all. At night, with the water glowing blue and Joshua moving serenely-reflections of yellow and gold and orange-above the pink gravel, it seemed to Emma she had never seen anything so pretty. She watched her aquarium the way astronomers watched stars.
And Emma couldn’t help becoming fond of Joshua. The white, creamy film covering his eyes made him always look confused and at loose ends. He sometimes made bold dashes around the tank as if he has some purpose in life, a job to do. On other days, he lolled about lazily, barely moving his fins, depending more on the water than himself to keep his body afloat. Those lazy days, he had a habit of bumping his head into a plastic plant or colliding with his castle.
Emma watched him and felt she knew him. When she raised the squeaky lid of the aquarium to shake some shrimp flakes onto the water, Joshua jumped up and came to the top, just as cats and dogs will come running when their food dishes are being filled. Joshua had to guess where they were as they lay on the surface, and he took several gulps of water when he missed. Emma laughed at him.
Joshua has lived with Emma nearly five months when one day in April she noticed Joshua’s tail fin looked shabby, like a hair comb that was missing some teeth.
The next day his tail fin looked worse, and he wobbled when he swam, as if needed a cane.
Emma was growing worried.
Then, on the third day, there were little white spots on Joshua’s scales. He leaned his body against the side of the tank and rested. He did not dash and he did not loll. He leaned and he rested.
Emma rushed to the pet store after school and brought him home a box of medicine. In the aquarium, Joshua lay on his side. Sometime he tried to move to a different part of the tank, but he couldn’t swim and he just fell over again.
Emma dropped two pills into the water.
“Please.” She whispered. “Please.”
Late into the night, Emma watched, as Joshua lay ill. Sometimes she cried. Once she sprinkled some shrimp flakes into the tank, but they just floated to the bottom, settling on the gravel around Joshua.
In the morning, Joshua was dead. Emma found him floating on top of the water when she woke up. When she lifted him out the water in the net, it surprised her how heavy he was. He was as large as her hand, and it surprised her because she had never held him.
For a few moments, she petted him, as she had never been able to do. Then she buried him in the backyard, along with his castle. Her parents, watched from a window, inside the house.
now put this in a short paragraph