The Last Minute

Chapter 5

"Soda," I said. "Don't you miss Sadie?"

He hesitated. "I suppose."

"Why the pause? Do you not miss her?" I asked.

"I hated the cramped-up tank. Sadie didn't care that we were all cramped in that tank. There were eleven of us in the same tank. Sadie didn't do anything-"

"She cared!" I shouted. Thankfully we had travelled an hour and weren't near too many fish. Those that we're nearby stared.

"How do you know, Sunset?" he asked.

"Be-because she did," I said. "She cared for us: fed us, cleaned us, kept our tank nice. That's why I miss her."

"Our tank was disgusting. I couldn't see an inch in front of me!" he said.

"So? You had bad eyesight."

He was stunned. I didn't care. We may have been brothers, but he didn't care about me like I care about him.

I swam on without him. He stayed stunned and frozen for a few seconds before finally realizing that I was gone. He saw where I went and swam in the other direction.

"I'll always miss you, Soda!" I said.

That was the last I saw of him.

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I swam for the whole day. It was exhausting so I took a break.

I had a dream about Sadie. She was at the front of the tank. Some fish I'd never met were there, and some I did know.

She was pouring in some fish, like she did when she got us. There were six in all. Two babies and four adults.

The dream shifted to inside the tank. I heard the fish talking.

Three fish were talking to the new ones.

"I'm Max," said the biggest one. He had holes in his fin.

"I'm Winona," said the fat female. She was so pretty.

"I'm Jo," said a little girl fish.

"Well, our names are Jonny for the bigger baby, Jefrie for the smaller baby, Shawn for the one with the metallic fin, Sassy for the cheetah print one, Martha for the yellow one, and I'm Fineas," said a fish.

"I'm Garfield, too, by the way," said a yellow catfish at the bottom of the tank.

"I'm Thomas," said a little brown frog.

"I think we'll get along great," said Shawn as Max tried to eat Jefrie. That was baby Jemmy that he tried to eat. Boy do I miss her right now.

I wasn't sure I'd ever wake up.

You can do this, Sunset. You want to see Jemmy and Sadie. You need to do this.

I woke from a long sleep and swam into the darkness of Proud Pond.