Everyday Canvas

The Fish Pond

Prompt: Write about your first love — be it a person, place, or thing.


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I like the place or thing idea because so many things surfaced from the depths of memory. With people, eh! I can count it on the fingers of one hand, if that!

Still, it is difficult to remember that far back, but I think it was the fish pond in the backyard with red-colored fish gliding in the water. The pond was circular and quite deep, maybe at the height of a tall man. I am guessing this was because the fish retreated to the bottom in cold weather.

I wasn’t allowed to go near it alone, which possibly suggested to me that there’s danger in love and in all hidden things when they are so deep that you can’t see the bottom. My mother would hold me tight from my waist and let me watch the pond with quite a few fish in it. Maybe her holding me back did it, that resistance of mine, which would surface many years later.

Once a cat stealthily neared the pond. It could have been a stray or one of the cats that belonged to my aunt who lived with us, I can’t exactly recall. That cat hooked her front leg and let her claws into the water, almost catching one of the fishes. Someone shooed it away, saving the fish.

What one loves can be in danger, too. Another reason to stay away from it, right? Another reason to avoid the hurt.

The fish weren’t always so lucky. A while later, when I was a bit older, I saw a cat catch one of those fish. After that, a wire mesh was stretched on the pond. I am not too sure that wire mesh was strong enough to save the fish from the cats. Maybe it was just the adults' wishful thinking and their need to do something about it.