Fish Eyes

It’s twelve in the morning and there goes the sound of another police siren. It’s almost easy to sleep through the sound considering it’s been eighteen years of constantly hearing the noise. Such a familiar noise that it’s like hearing an alarm clock. A simple annoyance but it has become a part of my life. Each siren has a story of its own, it’s sad but there are so many stories to be told.

Let’s take Jake for instance. He was an avid young fellow who liked to write and play sports. He had a keen vision for life and the ability to make sense out of just about anything. He loved attending school; it was a place where he could express himself. Home life wasn’t so great due to the verbal abuse that he would receive from his step father. Every piece of dignity was taken from him by the sharpened tongue that his step father possessed. To escape the abuse, he would imagine places that only his mind could take him. This is where he would find peace and happiness.

The trip to the mountains would be a turning point in his life. The mountains isolated a beautiful piece of land with a log cabin. There was a pond filled with many fish, butterflies fluttered over the pond, and the air surrounding the pond smelt so free. Daily, Jake would travel to the pond and just sit. He would gaze into the pond amazed at how every organism seemed to have a job to do. “How could they work with such harmony?” he thought. The pond was like a small city within a city. You had fish that would clean the bottom of the pond and there were fish to clean other fish. There were paths cut into the bottom of the pond that represented different roads. The complete structure of the pond seemed to fascinate him.

When he came to the pond he would carry a blue notebook. He would scribble notes on different things about his life in the notebook. There was a section in the notebook labeled, “Pain.” This section contained words of inspiration and affirmations. It was believed that if these words were constantly repeated they would deliver a person from the item causing strife in their life. For hours Jake would sit at the edge of the pond reciting these affirmations. There was a specific note listed on the page that read, “I grow with every word that has been directed to me by hatred. I now grow to be a prosperous man.” The notebook also had pictures of things that he wanted to receive in his life.