1. "Mom, Why is the fish water green?", Jimmie asked his mother soon after returning
home from his basketball game.
His mother responded, "The bowl needs cleaned, Jimmie."
Jimmie hated the word "clean" and anything that involved cleaning so he acted as if he
hadn't heard his mother. He finished his evening up by taking a shower, eating dinner and
watching the Lakers on television. On his way to bed, he told his gold fish good night.
"Good Night Martha, Maggie, Melissa, Martin, Mason, Myles, and Marco", Jimmie said
as he pulled his blanket over himself.
Jimmie was in for a big surprise when he came home from school the next day.
Devastation took over Jimmie's face when he saw Martin floating on top of the moss
covered fish bowl that afternoon. For the next few hours, Jimmie cried and refused to eat.
Jimmies mother explained to him that the fish could not live in the dirty water. She went
over directions for cleaning the bowl and was very detailed about how to keep his fish
healthy and alive. That evening, Jimmie watched the Lakers play Miami Heat after he
enjoyed a game of basketball with his friends. Again, on his way to bed, Jimmie said,
"Good Night", to all of his remaining gold fish, but the next morning he woke to find
Martha floating on top of the grassy fish bowl. All morning Jimmie thought about his
remaining his and made up his mind that he wouldn't spare the lives of anymore of his
fish. He would give in and clean his fish bowl.
When Jimmie got home from school he said, "Mom, can I have that extra fish bowl to put
my fish in while I clean their bowl?"
Jimmies mother gave him the extra bowl. He took it to the bathroom, filled it with cool
water, and scooped his fish into the extra bowl. Jimmie dumped the dirty water down the
toilet and cleaned the bowl out just as his mother had explained. Soon after he re-filled
the bowl, his mother came in to supervise and check up on Jimmie. She was so shocked
that he had cleaned something for the first time in her life that she starting taking
pictures. Jimmie dumped Maggie into the newly cleaned bowl, and before he could scoop
Marco up, Maggie jumped from the clean bowl back into the extra bowl. Marvilously, his
mother captured the moment of Maggie flying through the air between both bowls. The
two laughed histarically for 15 minutes before the could even attempt to finish moving
the fish back into their original bowl. To this day, the two can remember this spectacular
moment extremely vividly and get a kick out of it every time.