This actually happened yesterday, but one of the friends to whom I sent the story recommended I share it with the world, so here it is:
So, the receptionist comes into my office (actually, she stood in the window beside the door to my office) and asks "Are you squeamish?" I suggest that's too broad a question, and she asks me to come with her to look at something, and says something about "fish". So I follow her, and outside the lunchroom door there's a fish on the floor. The only fish tank in the office is a couple doors down, but on closer examination there are little droplets on the carpet. The fish is looking very departed, but I'm sure that if I touch it, it'll twitch, and I'll jump and/or scream. So she finds me the dustpan and some napkins, and I slide it onto the one using the other, and it doesn't twitch as violently as I expected, but there is some movement, so I drop it into the fish tank, and it just hangs there, but then it moves a little, and looking closely I can see some gill movement. But still, it's just hanging there, not moving other than the breathing. But when I close the lid, it flips into action, swimming around briefly for real. I don't think it really wants to live (it did, after all, push open the lid to escape), but at least I've given it the opportunity if it changes its mind.
Posted by Craig at August 18, 2004 10:57 AM