Balls

26

The girl and the boy were standing in front of his apartment block. His question was so vague, she could only hope he'd clarify.

"I meant, what do you think about relationships?" he finally replied.

"What about relationships? It's not like I should be prying on Molly and Aga ..."

"For you. I meant what if it is you? You and the possibility of starting a relationship with someone, right now... How do you feel about something like that?" Iqball laid his question out limb by limb.

Ballqis was taken aback. 

"I don't know. I suppose if it is the right guy and I feel good about it... and confident that I could handle it without ditching studies. But why ask me? Shouldn't you be asking Aga or Molly?" she rambled.

"Why should I? They're not the ones I'd ..." Iqball's sentence was cut short by a noise.

Someone was calling their names.

A girl was running towards them. 

Mirna! They both saw who it was as the figure hurled herself towards them.

"You two! Come with me," she hissed.

***

"So you planted the receipt? Why? What for?" Iqball asked.

Mirna had taken them to the 24-hour convenience shop just next to Ballqis' apartment building. She even bought each of them hot tea.

"Mrs Jogh is taking out some of the specimens soon. I thought you should know. I heard she was going to hire some other mover but thank goodness at the last minute Mrs Jogh picked Aaronmail to transport half of the fish from the lab to an undisclosed location. You guys showed her the receipt? Or she found it? Who cares how. That's the good news. The ploy worked!" she said enthusiastically.

Ballqis and Iqball were still unsure if that was something that they should celebrate.

"I've got bad news, though. The move. It's happening on Monday. We only have this weekend," Mirna quickly added. Her sullen expression seemed genuine.

Ballqis recalled how the red head reacted when they first approached her. Iqball too remembered that Mirna wasn't this thrilled to talk about the fish before.  

"How did you found out?" Ballqis queried. Something just felt odd.

"I know a guy who works for that company. I thought you two wanted to save the fish?" Mirna replied easily.

"An Aaronmail staff? Why would he tell you these things?" Iqball asked.

"Look, I found out about Aaronmail last semester, made friends with one of the workers. I passed by the lab a couple of days ago and saw the green tags. I called the Aaronmail guy to check," Mirna explained.

"Well, we're not sure about anything. It's just that ... if they don't incinerate the fish, then that's good enough, right? It will live on elsewhere ... right?" Ballqis answered.

"You're deluding yourself.
You think they'd be sent to pet lovers, don't you? Exotic fish collectors maybe? Live in castles and rich men homes where aquariums come with corn or wheat buttons? Come on, Aaronmail is a specialised live good mover. The guy I knew transferred out frogs and lizards that came into this country via aeroplanes hiding in passengers' shoes. They put an end to those animals by letting them inhale chemicals," Mirna insisted.

We can't have that for T7, said Iqball to Ballqis, just with a blink of his eyes.

Yeah, that talking fish is too precious to die like that, Ballqis agreed with a teeny nod.