I

I have recently heard that goldfish have good memories. I would like to buy a goldfish so that the next time a person asks me, "How are you doing?" I can reply, "Fantastic. Somewhere, there's a goldfish thinking of me."

I would like to judge the average response to such a statement. And if that person were then to turn around and walk away, casting a curious, or suspicious, glance over his or her shoulder, I would simply return home. I would sit upon the futon bed and stare into the tank, the fish's eyes cast large through the glass, and I would speak to it.

"Remember," I would say, indicating my narrow hallway, my dusty bookshelves, these accidental remainders of life. "Someday all this will be yours."