1) A young boy wins five goldfish at a carnival game on the last night of the carnival's visit to his town in West Virginia. 2) The boy spends hours watching the fish, believing they have magical powers, but gets frustrated when they do not perform for him. 3) After the boy stops watching the fish constantly, he discovers that four of the five fish have moved to a second container on their own. That night, he and his mother hear a splash and see the last fish jump into the second container.

1. Ashley Morgan
4/2/14/
Creative Writing Assignment
Loud noises, carnival rides, greasy foods, and bright lights come through a small town in
West Virginia once a year at the small time during August. Children are crying to their parents to
allow them to play and ride every game there. A small boy the age of 5 was begging his mother
to let him play every game; however, she told him that he would be allowed to choose one game
right before they left. The boy passed by games such as balloon popping, using a water gun to
shoot a target, playing basketball, and fat albert. Towards the end of the line of games, the boy
came across a game that used fish bowls. He looked to his mom and asked if he could actually
win real fish at this game. His mother allowed him once chance at the game which consisted of
throwing 5 ping pong balls into many fish bowls. The boy was so excited that he could have the
chance at winning 5 fish; however, he was so small that he could barely see where he was
throwing the ping pong balls. After he took all five chances none of the balls landed in the fish
balls and the boy was so devastated because he never had any pets and wanted to win something
at the carnival. The men working the game gave the young boy five of the gold fish since it was
their last night in this town and most of the fish wouldn’t survive to their next destination. The
boy was ecstatic about these new pets and made his mother go to the store and buy two fish
bowls and fish food to feed 1,000 fish for the next year before going home.
The boy was only five years old and expected the five pet fish he had to be extremely
interesting; however, he complained to his mother that they never did anything. He would spend
hours watching them because he believed that his fish had magical powers and could jump up
and out of the water. She told him that he shouldn’t stare and watch the fish all day because they
wouldn’t perform while he is watching. She suggested that they should put all five fish in one

2. bowl and place the other bowl with water in it beside it. A week went by of the boy staring at the
fish constantly and the fish did not move into the other bowl. The boy gave up and told the
mother that he didn’t even want to have the fish as pets anymore because they don’t do anything.
The mother explained to the young boy that he must not stare endlessly at the fish waiting
for them to do something. After the boy stopped watching the fish constantly for a few days the
child realized that four of the five fish had moved into the second container. He told his mom,
but she assumed that he had moved four of them by himself. While tucking the child in for bed
that night the mother and son heard a splash of water coming from the fish bowls. They
immediately looked over and the last fish was jumping into the other bowl.