Bubbles
Something I wrote while bored, there's not really much meaning, just some disguised thoughts i had while writing
The tank bubbled. Pops of air rising up as the filter cycled, cleaning and sanitizing it.
The sound made Luna's ears flick, the short, small boy watching the goldfish as they circled their little tank, the low humming of the filter like a motor idling, white noise that slid through his head, barely noticed, but heavily felt.
The golden orange fish circled around the tank, fins flicking and swaying about in the sanitized water, fluorescent bulbs shining the water blue. A cold, empty scene, flooded with pops of color that squirmed about against the landscape they were dropped into. Gray pebbles lining the flooring, being sucked up by the fish and spit out.
And Luna just stared, feeling the images of the fish swimming behind his eyes, watching them with resigned interest, as long blonde hair fell over his arms and shoulders, cheek resting against the back of folded up hands.
Did they ever really want this? To be held up in this tank. What did they think of their small, elliptical world? Was it prison or was it paradise?
Did they talk among themselves? Communicating through pops, sharing their view of the glass bubble?
And what of the things they saw outside, the viewers looking in, whose distorted faces no doubt become background noise in their day to day lives.
Including his, as he watched them like a voyeur, going about their lives within this little dome they were put in, some born in.
The thoughts rose, just like those bubbles that the filter which steadily streamed those orbs of air. Popping on the surface and dissipating into a still surface.
He sat up, cupping the bowl in thighs and hugging it to himself. There were four of them in this little bowl the size of a bowling ball, not nearly enough room for them to grow, not nearly enough room for them to live.
He lifted their world, setting it atop a stand about chest level with him. Before departing, the little shapes not noticing his leaving, left to swim and to wander about without their observer. Maybe it would've been relieving that he left, if they were even aware, maybe it would've been terrifying, no longer under the gaze of the one who provided for them, who fed them and who provided them continued life.
But he returned, grasping the little bowl, sending tremors through the water, bowl quaking with his movements as he lifted the bowl from the stand and took it instead to another room, where another world was waiting. Rectangular and wide, with multicolored pebbles lining the flooring, plants to wend in and out between, plastic ruins to play in. And much much more of a world to stay in. The water was treated, cleaned, sanitized, and so Luna simply dumped them from one world to another, four little plops into the same water, and yet a different environment.
They swam, no longer struggling, no longer bumping into each other. They grew apart, settling into their new home.
The filter bubbled gently, pops of air bubbling to the surface, as Luna watched. Hoping they enjoyed their new home, as he flicked off the lights and let the blue, florescent bulb shine warmly into the water.