DEATH BECOMES HER

So Arden's goldfish bit it this past weekend. At least that's how Jen put it when she informed our impressionable daughter of the passing of her beloved Goldie.

I kid you not, we've had this twelve cent goldfish for over two years. I've been through at least a dozen containers of tetra flakes for this one fish. But ultimately he could only swim around fate for so long. So when Jen spotted Goldie floating upside down in his bowl she called me in, wondering how we should approach Arden. I said, "She has no idea what death is, so let's just tell her." So we called Arden into the room and showed her Goldie. Jen used her aforementioned eloquence to explain what had transpired. No reaction. But about a minute later Arden said with a hopeful grin, "Can we get a new fish?" "Sure." And then we flushed the sucker and went out to lunch.

But as the day went on Arden started to get curious. She asked if she would ever see Goldie again. I said, "No. But he's up in heaven looking down on you." Arden looked up at the sky and said she couldn't see him. I explained that it was a one way deal. And then Arden asked the inevitable question: Am I going to die? We decided to go with the honest route, "Not for a long long time." But Arden started to get weepy and said, "I don't wanna die." So Jen tried to make it better by going the less-than-honest route and said Goldie was now an angel with wings. I'm not really up on my Biblical studies, but I thought that angels brought us to heaven. I didn't think we became them. And I didn't think Arden needed that kind of visual with her overactive imagination. But we managed to stave off any further questions by turning on Spongebob and plying her with some peanut butter pretzels.

Over the past couple of days Arden's continued to ask me if Goldie can see her and I keep saying, "Of course." And since she's a smarty pants she keeps saying things like, "Even through the roof?" Eventually she let it go. That was until I was driving her to school this morning.

Arden said, "Is Goldie's flying around right now?" I said, "Yes, up in heaven." Arden then said, "I love to fly. I can't wait to die." Thanks, Jen.