Goldfish

Cherry

By GlosKat

Thu, 30 Oct 2025
  • 666 reads
12 comments
 

Mrs Henderson looked surprised and opened her mouth.  We waited for some words, but none came.  She looked like a startled goldfish, who has swum headfirst and at some speed into the glass wall of her bowl, with a 'Hey ! What just happened !' expression.

After several seconds of silence she closed her mouth with an audible clop, turned and walked away.

We exchanged embarrassed glances in the continuing silence, then shuffled our feet, and stared at our shoes. We had never seen an adult look vulnerable, not in charge. And it was our fault.  Slowly we separated and drifted away….

Certificate U
Story

Comments

Submitted by GlosKat on

Inspired by a story by TJW.  I like the idea of giving the readers the bare bones and encouraging them to make up their own backstory ..

 

Submitted by TJW on

It's the Iceberg theory.  Read Hemingway.  All about vigorous English.  

 

Submitted by GlosKat on

Well Jack you are certainly educating me.  I have read Hemingway, and I love his books and sparce prose and lack of adjectives, and I know he was a journalist before and while he was writing novels, but I've never heard it called Iceberg Theory before.

 

 

Submitted by TJW on

Being an ex-pat in Paris Hemingway had several tete-a-tetes (I can't make the circumflexe accent) with Gertrude Stein famous for a rose is a rose is a rose.  When she disparaged his novel The Sun Also Rises he sent her a telegram:  A bitch is a bitch is a bitch.

 

Submitted by insertponceyfre... on

Always nice to see something inspired by another person's idea.

One small typo: shuffled our feet?

 

Submitted by GlosKat on

ooh yes Claudine thank you, I will fix that.  

 

Submitted by Turlough on

I've just noticed who TJW is.

I googled TJW and found only this...

Tyrel Jackson Williams, American rapper and signer who formerly used the stage name TJW.

And I think they mean singer.

Now I'm wondering if there's more than one TJW.

Turlough

Submitted by GlosKat on

Well I meant our ABC TJW (Jack) who wrote a story on here called 'Upbringing'.

 

Submitted by Turlough on

Well I know that now but it took my poor old brain a while to realise what was going on.

Turlough

Submitted by GlosKat on

'Spect you were busy thinking about your new grandson, he's lovely.

 

Submitted by Jane Hyphen on

You've captured something delicate and transient, an awkward moment, children discovering that adults are breakable and themselves wincing and feeling responsible. They'll never see her the same again.

 

Submitted by GlosKat on

Thanks Jane, it's quite a rite of passage isn't it, the moment a child realizes they have power over an adult, and it's not always the other way round.  Scary but liberating.