The Aquarium
Date Thursday, March 28, 2024 - 11:58 PM PST
Topic Illustrations


So you walk into this room. It's empty for the most part, and you almost don't notice the aquarium sitting of on its own on the far side. Normally, you don't really dig aquariums, but this one looks a little bit interesting. So you decide to walk over to check it out, not really knowing what to expect.
It’s a pretty decently sized tank with a good number of fish. As you look closer yet, you can see fish that are native to that type of tank, and fish who seem to have been added from other places. There are plants and little statues and structures that the denizens dart in and out of, carrying on their little fishy lives. You find yourself actually enjoying the fish tank, and thinking maybe this would be something kind of neat to have in your own life.

But then you notice the stench. Underlying all the fun little fish, there is that smell. A fetid stink that speaks of rot and decay. You are confused at first. You can’t figure out where it’s coming from. You know it’s not you; sure, you may not smell like roses all the time, but nothing near so awful as whatever it is you are smelling. You look back at the tank, harder, closer than you did before. And then you realize what the malodor is. You see the bits of green sediment floating throughout the tank.

There is no filter, no skimmer net to insure that some of that waste gets removed. The water is completely stagnant, stirred only by a quickly passing fish. In some places, the tank is choked under huge piles of the stuff. Some of the fish, the ones that seem to have been there their entire lives, ignore the filth. Some actually feed off of it occasionally. You are naturally disgusted, wondering how you could have missed this before.

The fish themselves are all wrong. The ones that have been in the tank for too long, although they may look pretty, behave in bizarre ways. They dart around aimlessly, butting heads with each other, or congregating in groups and then doing nothing. The fish that haven’t been there so long...they look sick, tired. Their colors are faded. Some are forced to hide from the native fish because their natural behavior doesn’t mesh with the larger community, some give in and join the native fish. And those that are tired of trying, simply give up and let themselves be picked apart, eaten piece by piece by either the rot or the other fish, their decimated carcasses floating down to the bottom of the tank to become more of the decay.

The little structures and the plants that were added and grown to make the tank more beautiful to the eye are just as tainted as the rest of the tank. You shudder when you think about what the inside of those little cubby-holes in the rocks must look like. The entire setup is so wrong, so grotesque, that you wonder why you can’t tear yourself away. The only thing you are sure of, is that when you finally manage to get away, it’s going to take some serious scrubbing to get rid of that funk.
Welcome to Spokane, WA.


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