Cruel to be Kind

Only one minute before, I'd got over the heart-thumping stress of losing your best friend's pets. I had been playing with the offending guinea-pigs, and let them go by mistake. And, as all guinea-pigs naturally love doing, they'd scuttled under the neighbour's fence. After 'Operation Fetch-Back' which involved sneaking into the neighbour's garden via the fence line, I was catching my breath. Watching Lunch and Dinner scuttling around in their hutch and talking with Kate, who didn't hold anything against me for nearly losing her pets, was a calm, relaxing atmosphere. Someone screamed.

"What on earth...?!?" Kate and I wondered at the same time. We looked at each other trying to find some confirmation, and then picked ourselves up from our flopped positions on the grass near the swings and tore into the house. "Don't... no... I won't let you... NO!" The sounds issued from Kate's brother's bedroom. "I don't want to... please? Please? PLEASE?"

Daniel, Kate's brother, kept tropical fish. They were his pride and joy, and he'd only had them for about two months. That's enough time to get attached to fish, obviously. Daniel had about 5 different types of fish, and he didn't mind letting seven year-olds into his room to look at them. He was about ten. Kate, Lizzi and I used to spend ages watching the swim in lazy circles in the relatively large aquarium and debating whether or not they had a 10 second memory, and chatting about life-and-death topics like whether Coke Bottles were better than Pineapple Lumps. Daniel was a great big brother to Kate, and was never horrible toward Kate's friends. The life expectancies of his fish had just been cut short.

There was a infection in the aquarium. Not the fault of Daniel, but some type of bacteria in the town water supply. It cost lives - of pets. The tropical fish were dying, and the rest were very sick. Kate and Daniel's father had decided that it was cruel to keep the fish in such poisoned conditions, and had decreed that the fish were to be 'put down' for their own good. By Daniel.

Against his son's protests and tearful yells, the father gathered the fish into a plastic bag, and sat it on the concrete outside, and called his son. Daniel was presented with a brick. He was crying as he did it.

Before the fish were 'put down', I didn't really understand what was going on, and Kate didn't either. We knew that the fish were going to die, but didn't really believe, somehow, that it would actually happen. We watched the whole process with fascination, and regretted it as soon as we found out what had happened.

The fish were never mentioned ever again.

I found this today, after forgetting it for four years, while clearing out 'My Documents'. I re-named it for here, as I thought it was a bit of a question... who was the cruel one, and who was kind? Daniel or his parents? Sometimes the choices we make are not what they seem...
It's amazing how the most graphic in emotional events stay with you!