Something's fishy

I have been feeding my neighbours' fish while they have been away on holiday. These neighbours have kept my cat alive and happy on a number of occasions when I have been out of town, including my 3 1/2 week trip to the States. The fish have to be fed every second day, which I think is probably harder to remember than daily feeding. Given the general chaos in which I usually exist, I had developed some anxiety about keeping the fish alive while they were gone.

Today, as I was letting myself into their apartment I came across my neighbour and her daughter, standing in their hallway. (Possibly they had been calling out to me as I was fumbling with the lock but I had my ipod on.) My neighbour was in her dressing gown and had what can only be described as bed hair. She explained that they had come back early and mentioned they had had a death. I was offering my solemn condolences when she explained that she was talking about one of the minnows which she had found on the floor next to the fish tank and had assumed that I had "laid him out" for viewing.

I became increasingly flustered.

I explained that I wouldn't have deliberately left a dead fish on her carpeted floor. We entered a relatively incoherent conversation about how the minnow might have jumped out of the tank or perhaps had died and was ejected from the tank by one of the goldfish. We even speculated that my cat might have snuck into the apartment and fished it out. Of course the problem was that the fish tank has a tight-fitting lid and the whole thing is really darn mysterious.

The conversation then shifted and I got to hear an exciting double annoucement i.e. that my neighbour had resolved to take up tap dancing this year while her daughter had been given a drum kit for Christmas. Did I mention our apartments share a wall?