8:91) Aaron Webb 26-JAN-98 12:28

Or a lazy teenage boy, watching sadly as the work and shit and drudgery and messages pile up. He watches his planner fill with ink, and overflow onto the already messy bedroom floor. He hides in sleep, somehow. The guilt of going to bed with applications undone on the desk next to him used to keep him awake, but now he just sleeps, the desire to work decreasing as the need to work increases. At this rate, he'l just not end up at college, or at least not at his first choice, or at least without money. Grades fall, as he falls asleep. Today, probably spurred on by the memories of a loved dog, his mind wanders to his last pet. His only pet really, a small silvery goldfish stuck in a foot high cylindrical plastic bowl. It swam back and forth, around a green plastic plant for almost two years. I fed it irregulary, assuming, as I do today, that it was more natural. I cleaned the tank three times. Only when it died (by hang it self by the gills on the sharp end of one of the plant's branches while I was at school one day) did I realize it existed.

Fish ain't cuddly, nor good companions. Lucky Me.