Pond People

Flo came to find Molly.

‘I’m worried about Grandad. He’s gone a funny colour, and his breathing’s sort of… gurgly. Amber’s gasping again, and Eddy’s trying to be tough, but he isn’t looking good either.’ She pushed back wisps of hair from her eyes. ‘I don’t know how long he’ll hold out if the water gets worse.’

Flo didn’t mention how she felt herself, but her usual pearly sheen had a grey tinge, and her gills were an unpleasant shade of pink.

Sylva brought an armful of weed, trimmed from her home plant. ‘I don’t suppose any of us feel like eating, but this is in case anyone gets hungry. Not as tempting as Walter’s triffic leaf patties.’

Sylva preened as if she’d taught him herself.

Flo hardly noticed her. ‘The children are busy with their new clothes and their Christmas toys. Mother is busy running around after them. Somehow we have to make them look at the tank.’

Flash had joined them with Eddy trailing behind. Molly turned to them.

‘Flo’s right. We have to make the humans look twice and notice something’s wrong. Any ideas?’

‘Other than dancing a jig at the front of the tank, you mean?’ Flash turned away.

‘I don’t think they’d notice.’ Eddy looked drained.

‘Andre m-might.’

Flash folded his arms across his chest. ‘We can show them a pile of dead fish if it goes on much longer.’

‘N-not if we’re dead M-mirlings, we can’t.’

Molly could taste Flo’s anger.

Eddy put a comforting arm around his sister, but in the next breath he was leaning on her.

Flo looked from Flash to Molly. ’We could build a pile of something though, couldn’t we?’

Flo’s thinking was muzzy, but her eyes expected Molly to understand. An image surfaced.

‘Good thinking, Flo.’

Sylva could help and Flash, of course. She wasn’t sure about Eddy.

‘Sylva, go and get Walt. We need his help. Tell him it’s to save Amber.’

‘Help to do what?’

‘We’re going to build a mountain. At least, it’s got to be a pile big enough for a human to notice. We’ve got to grab their attention.’

Eddy was touchingly confident in Flash’s ability to build mountains. So, when Sylva returned, Flash went with her as assigned, to collect leaves and stems while Walter and Flo foraged in the other direction.

Molly pushed some gravel into a mound to start off their pile. When the others returned, she went with Walt to gather more branches.

On her return, it was disheartening to see how little their efforts had achieved. The bump was hardly noticeable to mirling eyes, yet Mother must see it with human eyes when she came to feed the fish in the morning. Dragging branches and leaves to the front of the tank had taken all their depleted energy.

Walter sounded apologetic. ‘It won’t be high enough.’

‘No,’ agreed Flash, looking pleased that someone else had said it first.

Walt and Flash added their branches to the pile, and Molly stood back to think again.

Flo stood by the glass wall with her hands clasped in front of her, gazing at the door of the living room where Andre stood, reluctant to drag himself from the TV and go to bed.

‘Are you all right Flo?’ Flash sounded concerned.

Flo shook her head as if to clear it. ’A silly idea. I thought I might be able to make Andre hear me, or at least sense something. I hoped if I c-concentrated really hard…’

Her eyes were red. ‘I’d better go check on Grandad.’

Flash looked again at their mound, which had already settled flatter. ‘We’ll have to make it a platform instead. Or even a carpet.’

A bier, thought Molly. She tried to dismiss the image.

‘Eddy, you see those three minnows skulking at the back, behind the stones?’ He nodded. ‘Do you think you could persuade them around to the front, to rest on our leaves?’

Eddy’s smile curved at the prospect of being able to help. ‘I can give it a go.’

But would it be enough to make a human look twice?

Slowly the mat of leaves and filaments spread, although it was still pitifully small. A minnow drifted out from behind a stone with Eddy lying along its back, leaning to encourage it in the direction he wanted it to go. He slid off when its slender length was positioned over the leaves. Its tail overhung the green covering. Molly stretched her aching back, hands on her hips, as Flash and Sylva arrived hauling a large flat leaf.

‘That’s brilliant! Put it in front of the minnow, so it’s obvious. Eddy, the next fish will have to rest half on the gravel too, or the fish will hide the leaves.’ She eyed the swaying mirling. ‘Will you be able to manage another one?’

‘No problem.’

If Flo were here, thought Molly, she’d never talk to me again. Flo clearly thought it was safe to stay with Grandad since Eddy was too weak to do more than watch.

The third minnow followed the second as Eddy persuaded it out to the front of the tank where a patch of green surrounded the first minnow. Andre passed the tank, and the mirlings froze.

He glanced in.

Molly would never know if it was their greenery or the ailing minnows that caught Andre’s attention, or else the fantail above them, who was having trouble swimming upright. His brows drew together as if trying to remember what was different the last time he looked in.

‘Dad, the p-pump isn’t working. There aren’t any b-bubbles in the aquarium.’

While he flicked the switch on and off at the wall, Molly took the opportunity to hustle the mirlings into cover. Father came and repeated Andre’s switch-flicking, before pulling a white block out of the wall. He went away and returned with a long metal tool, which he applied to the block.

‘The fuse has blown,’ he said. ‘Must have been when the power came back after the cut.’

‘Look at all the leaves under that minnow,’ said Andre. ‘Like a b-bed. Do you think the fish dragged them there?’

His mother had appeared in a long blue fluffy robe and was peering into the tank, ‘I wouldn’t know, son,’ she said, ‘but they’ll need clearing out before they rot there. Those fish don’t look too healthy either. If the pump’s been off all that time, you should change some of their water.’ She straightened up and added, ‘I’ve just run my bath, so I’d better not leave it to get cold.’ She left the kitchen, humming cheerfully.

Father grunted. ‘Andre, can you get that plastic vacuum tube from the shed please – oh, and half fill the black bucket with water from the pond. Bring it in to warm up before it goes in the aquarium. I’ll show you how to clean the gravel.’

‘B-b-but Dad, I’m missing the film. I only came out to get a drink while the b-break was on.’ His father’s disapproving frown prompted a rebellion. ‘I wish I’d kept quiet about the rotten old fish!’

His father grunted again and went to find the bucket.