Scott Fagan's Mem.wa?

 Here is another little “Witch Crik” story, from the point of view of my (then) seven year old daughter Twinkle (Lelia). 

 My name is Lily, 

My Mother, my Father, My twin brother and I live on a farm way up in the mountains in California, where my Great Grand Father planted peaches and plums and grapes a long long time ago. 

He built a pond too 

And in the summertime it gets very full of froggies and fish…and little taddy-poles. 

Last summer it got very very hot, and the pond became a puddle. We didn’t know what to do.. 

Everyday after day it got smaller and smaller and the fish got crowded, some froggies just hopped out and watched. 

The puddle got so small that some fishes began to die,then lots of fish began to die 

and then one day, there wasn’t any puddle anymore,and they were ALL going to die. 

We didn’t know WHAT to do. 

Then my Brother or me, I don’t remember who, said “Let’s put some in the sink”. And then my brother or me said “Yeah! An let’s put some in the bathtub”. 

Then our Dada said ” Ooh my Babies, I’m so sorry, We can’t do that, we have to use those places!” 

Then my Brother or me, I don’t remember who, said “What about the bucket? We could put some water in the bucket; an’ they could live in there.” 

Our Dada looked like he was gonna cry and he said, “Ooh my sweethearts, I’m so sorry, I’m afraid these little fishies are done for.” 

And we said, “Ooh Dada, Can’t we try”? And he said “Ooh my Duckies, do you REALLY want to?” 

And we said “Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!” 

So our Dada said, “Ok Duckies..then we will!” 

So we ran around and found all the buckets we could find and Dada got his snake swakin’ shovel, and off we went to the fishies. 

Man oh boy, it was a sad thing. 

There were hundreds of fishes, and none of them were moving or anything, and millions of taddy-poles.. 

Then my Brother or me, I don’t remember who, said ” Look! Somethin’s flopping around over there!” And we ran over there and Dada scooped it up with the shovel and plopped it in the bucket. Right away it started breathing and swimming around in the water. 

“Oh boy Oh boy Oh boy!” We said. And Dada said “Holy Smokes”. 

Then we saw another one move and another one and another one. 

We ran all over the place, plopping them in the buckets as fast as we could. And taddy-poles too! 

We FILLED up our buckets with FISH, 

Dada said they were CAT Fish. Soon we had so many Catfish, we didn’t know WHAT to do. 

So we dumped them in the rain barrel that Mama uses to wash her hair, And ran back to get some more! 

We got every single one of them that was still alive, And ALL of our buckets and rain barrels were full of Cat fish, and taddy-poles too. 

Then Dada said “Yes my Duckies, If you really want to name them, we could try.. 

We tried to name them all…there was Moby and Tina and Moby maybe..and Tina Two and Sharky the first, and lots and lots of names. That’s when we discovered that we were naming some of them two and three times in a row and that we couldn’t tell who was who, except the littlest one..We named her Tiny. 

And Dada said “Oh my Duckies, they might not live very long in the buckets and in the rain barrels” but that “at least we tried, and that is what’s important”. 

Every morning around 8 O’clock and every afternoon around three, all the catfish would come up to the top of the barrels and go “Turp Turp Turp” all at the same time. 

Boy, there was a lot of them.. We gave them bread crumbs to eat. 

The bread crumbs made the water funny and they didn’t like the bread crumbs anyway, so we went to the fishin’ store in town. 

We got cartons of big fat and juicy worms, which my brother and me didn’t want to touch and our Mother didn’t like to have in the refrigerator. 

Maybe the Cat fish didn’t like them either because, like Dada said, “lot’s of them are beginning to give up the ghost” Until they were mostly all gone. 

We didn’t know WHAT to do. 

Finally, there were only two left, Tiny and another guy…and then School started and we didn’t see the Catfish much, then Mama’s calico cat that we called Meep!, might have gotten the catfish in the rain barrel out by the clothesline. 

There was no sign of Tiny, but the taddies in her bucket were real big so we hoped maybe she was still ok. 

Finally, the rains came, and we watched the puddle become the pond again 

And we said, Oh boy! “Maybe we can put Tiny back in the water soon” And Dada said ” Oh my Duckies..if she’s still alive..” 

We wondered if she was, it was such a long long time. 

Then today, my brother or me, I don’t remember who, said “Dada, Dada, lets put the fish back in the water!” 

And Da Da said “Ooh my babies, we don’t know if their even still alive at all” and we said “Ooh Dada Can’t we try”? And Dada said “Ok my Duckies, if you really really want to, and we said “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah! 

So Dada carefully poured the water from Tiny’s big bucket into a smaller one with a handle on it and we watched for Tiny, and looked out for taddys that might spill on the ground. 

My brother didn’t know if he saw her or not or maybe it was a leaf but we did see three taddys fall out. Dada picked them up and put them in the handle bucket and off we went. 

When we got down to the pond it was still very small, But much bigger than when it was dry. 

The water was so clean and so clear and so quiet. 

Then Dada poured the bucket into the pond and the water got all rippled and muddy and we just waited.. 

Then my brother or me or my Dada, I think it was ALL of us said “LOOK LOOK, There she is! There’s TINY! 

And I felt so happy that I cried. And I know my brother and our Dada felt the same way too. 

As we stood by the pond we had a feeling that we won’t ever forget, even when today and tomorrow, go to be a long long time ago.  

The End