THE FISH TANK CRAB

Two people were coming to me last night, their conversations excited. As they approached, I heard someone say, “Listen, just pick up the phone and say,‘ Lewis. The crab of your fish tank has escaped! ’”

After that they turned and hurried into the city, very deep in their terrible treatment. This, no doubt, was the best thing I have ever felt. I was excited - opportunities to tell! In my brain, a web of nerves suddenly exploded:

Oh, Lewis! What news can you find during your vacation, say, Mauritius, where you drive to meet a sand shark. When you are told that the crab of your fish tank has escaped, you will recall how you, as you put it, “rescued” you from the rocky rock years ago. The crab, let’s call it ‘Ramon’, was as red as Chevy and as fast as it was, but you, Lewis, were as fast.

Ramon did not take any action to save his life. Back in your apartment in London, he would not come in contact with fish, eels, and ganglia attached to a large tank. He even refused a single-eyed octopus, which was quickly transferred to his tank because, as he later explained to your neighbor, "he used to fight". Instead, Ramon dug deep into the plastic rocks at the bottom of the tank until they almost sank into his shell. Crustacean Gregor Samsa. You had to pull it out with a fish knife as carefully as possible because Ramon was always ready to bite. Such an opportunist, he laughed, put her back in the tank.

I’m sorry to report that while you were on your vacation, Ramon saw his chance. Ask your neighbor, call him "Jess", guard the tanks while you're away. “Can you cross my aquarium?” text him, he is proud of you. Let's face it - Lewis, he had a lot of ideas for keeping fish for a while. Hopefully, this will be the beginning of something between the two of you. You thought Jess would be so impressed with your large tanks that, when you returned, she would probably warmly greet you with a welcome lunch and a freshly cleaned apartment. Or something. Didn't you see that this woman who seemed to be sharing in Jess's place, let's call her "Keisha", was actually his girlfriend? You would think they were partners living in apartments with different rooms. However, warn Jess not to bring anyone into your home while she is there. "It could endanger the safety of the tanks," you might say. “One wrong move - maybe she slips, maybe she puts her arm in the filter, and bam! Grief. You'd better just go in yourself. “The truth is, Lewis, you wanted to build a relationship that would end in divorce. You take good care of the fish you choose carefully, you think. Jess will surely see your beauty and protection, and she may wish you well and choose to protect yourself. Anything else. "Just you," he repeated.

Jess had agreed to feed the fish while your sun was shining on the sea, your body is as soft and white as the flesh under Ramon's skull. You could explain that he had to go in, shake a few flakes at the top of the tank and watch as the fish kissed each other face to face. This is what you loved most about your tanks, Lewis - the love of pleading. Whenever you fed fish, your fish, you felt like a member of the Peace Corps, carrying gifts. A gracious God.

Jess was not a kind god, she worked in Sales. You also believe that you should always cooperate with your neighbors if possible. To be honest, he was a very aggressive dog but he thought the fish would not be hard to catch. "They are low maintenance," confirmed Keisha, worried that she would be offended by the new addition to the many projects that seemed to be building the home. But still, Keisha came with Jess to feed the fish.

The escape happened during their second visit to your apartment. Jess and Keisha had a good laugh yesterday when they walked into a small, sad studio. This was important - it was the first time they had laughed together for three months and had only been together for four months. The apartment was surrounded by your big fish tanks, but there was actually nothing else in it - the fridge, a leaky water bed, and a long, rusty lamp. But they agreed that the tanks, full of all kinds of strange creatures, were too cool. Or, as Keisha said, "Not on, like, level aquarium." Jess thought this was a small thing (who could have put the whole aquarium in a Crystal Palace apartment?), But he said nothing, not wanting to ruin the sudden simplicity between them.

Jess and Keisha had met on a dating app. At first, Jess found herself swiping a hailstorm before figuring out how to change her settings to women only. This didn’t really sum up Jess’s preferences though, but at least in this way, she wouldn’t have to deal with extreme men. Other than that, it is. After a five-right swipe that led to unwanted dick pictures closing the inbox, hard and hard as coral reefs, Jess was hanging on to Keisha.

Keisha helped make films, became a knuckle designer, and all her friends wore tight jeans and baseball caps. Jess loved reading good novels and going to movies with a coworker and his best friend, Mac. Keisha was the only overseer who had never had a one-night stand. Jess had never been in a deep love affair and felt it was time to try one.

On the day of Ramon's escape, he and Keisha may have been in a position to live together. Keisha spent every night with Jess ’and her PlayStation was always connected to the TV, so Jess thought the lease agreement was on track. This should be love, he thought, doing everything together. Like everything - a betrayal at the shebeen, shopping at the store, keeping the toilet door open, everything. It was good, though Jess. Outside, as Mac had explained, he had begun to suspect that there was something hot under this allotted time, a feeling of deep and unspoken resentment that Jess could understand. He didn’t particularly want to be filled with Keisha’s full look, but it was clear to him that closing the door would not be allowed. "Homosexual compensation" is a term used by Mac, which Jess became angry about because she did not feel completely homosexual or unloved. But he understood Mac's frustration - without work, Jess could no longer see them and this was because of Keisha. Whenever Mac wrote to Jess to participate, Keisha always had an event or special event that she expected Jess to attend. Or, worse, Keisha was insulted that Mac hadn’t invited her openly again, even though she seemed to dislike Mac and wouldn’t stop giving them bad. And then, Jess would refuse Mac's offer in front of Keisha, but then meet them for lunch during workdays, winning as they joked about Keisha's plans to camp for the next bank holiday. Jess, who loved nature, would have to go with him. But that was love, explains Jess. "What?" Mac had asked. "Downsizing?" He ignored them.

Jess followed your amazing instructions, Lewis, first by removing any old garbage from the tank with a small net. Keisha was talking about something when Jess saw what looked like a piece of red plastic peeking out from under the castle. He used the net to try to remove and dispose of the garbage. But it is not something that is discarded. It was Ramon. A dove in the net, a boat in the dark, a sudden bridge to freedom. Jess looked up, startled, as the crab didn't even know it was there, and moved the handle, crawled to the edge of the tank, and then stopped. They are equal to Jess. Ramon was young but quick and decisive. Jess was beautiful but needed time to think about her options before imitating. He tried to figure out what he would want if his pet he thought - in his mind, Saint Bernard - escaped while being cared for by Lewis. He would have wanted Santa Bernard found, he decided. So, Jess tried to catch the crab, but Ramon would not be snatched twice. He jumped out of the danger zone, came to the square in his nose, and blinked.

Jess's screams interrupted Keisha's description of a new cycling club she had just joined, a group of women all gathered at a small workshop in East Croydon. "What the fuck?!" she cried inwardly as she saw Jess crawling around with a crustacean attached to her face. Ramon, whose sight was now slightly blocked by Jess's hair, saw the front door left open and sent for it. This sudden move sent Jess back and forth and she almost got into a big fish tank, but Keisha grabbed her arm and pulled her at the right time. Babukane. Imagine the cost of replacing the tank! Jess shuddered at the thought. It always seemed like a small thing to him, Lewis, even though Jess didn't know how much money you could spend to pursue legal action. But he doesn't care to find out.

On their first day, Jess and Keisha had split their diet bill and paid separately for their drinks at the bar they passed to. This was common for Jess, who always paid for herself. However, as the relationship progressed, the traditions surrounding the payment became something they could not explain to him. Sometimes it seemed to Jess that they should, pay separately. At times, though, he may have wondered when the need for financial security would come. For example, was it right to ask Keisha, who was always on the move, to help out with the rent? Or maybe resources, because he obviously had a serious problem with turning off the lights? However, at the same time, something happens to Jess when something happens that Keisha moves to pay for both of them. Jess did not want the clergyman at Sainsbury to think that she was a foster woman. However, after a few heated discussions that led to their buying different foods, Jess became concerned about that as well. Did the narrator now think they were just partners? Jess wondered, would they cross so quietly to stay together while filling out Excel spreadsheets independently, almost privately, after each paycheck? Was the closeness so close to someone that you knew by heart the smell of their coaches or the various meanings of their murmurings, but you were not specified for their extreme performance?

Back in your apartment, Ramon was now walking under Keisha and Jess, leaving a little water behind him. Trying to avoid her, Keisha jumped over the crab and slipped. Now it was Jess's turn to grab him, but he didn't arrive on time. Jess watched as Keisha fell to the side of the second tank, the tank you, Lewis, had warned her about. Octopus tank. It was, as Jess would later explain to Mac on the street when I met them, a real cluster fuck. The tank slowly receded and then hit Keisha's head before it hit the ground. It cracked open, sending small pieces of glass and a large black octopus. This tank did not contain the same materials as the original, no castles, no stone, because, you could explain, the octopus - let's call it "Maureen" - had a history of using second objects "for evil purposes". Jess was just laughing at the time but she wasn't laughing now. This means that the second tank was already a glass box, black and tightly closed, where Maureen waited. But now she was free.

“Shut the door!” Jess applauded the injured Keisha, who had been shut down just before Ramon arrived. Maureen was motionless. Everyone in the room - Jess, Keisha, Ramon - was watching. Even some fish, safe and gentle in the first tank, look at the octopus. But Maureen kept one eye closed, exhuming the spirit of the former assassin in connection with her retirement by kidnapping young criminals. Ramon, who knew what noise he was making to warn Maureen of her presence, remained completely silent. Jess and Keisha looked at each other in horror. The octopus and crab were big in the kitchen, now filled with pieces of glass and tank water! What a blue mess. They made a big, quiet motion to each other to confirm the app: Jess, who was next to Maureen, was trying to grab her and put her in the first tank of fish; Keisha, now close to Ramon, was going to challenge the crab. They both suddenly realized that this was the only time they would have a conversation, a real conversation that was not about cycling or eating, in the churches. Their semaphores become intimate and loving. They were smiling to themselves.

Their second day, Keisha recalled, was at a party in the garage of her friend Claire. The group played percussion instruments, synchronized, and shouted at the same time. Keisha and her friends danced masculinely around the stage, though perhaps 'dancing' was the wrong word for it. As Jess was going to tell Mac the next day, it was a mysterious tower. They would burn their bodies together, flannel and denim interacting and emitting small clouds of scent.

Jess was at the bar with her Kindness when Keisha approached her.

“Come and dance!” he shouted. Jess was shy, Keisha thought, and it was lovely. "No, I'm fine," Jess said. "Come onnnnn," Keisha had pulled him by the arm until Jess, laughing, joined them. The mixing began again, with the sound of a new song. Keisha could see how Jess got in - a pack of people influencing each other. It was an amazing camaraderie of the body - the sternum and limbs embracing and resisting. In the games Keisha watched, there was always love between the players, who abused their enemies, who supported and controlled their teammates. That was the same feeling here, Keisha felt. Being close and having your own style, of throwing your body into theirs and knowing that it will be held tight, pushed hard, loved hard. Jess was smiling. Finally Jess, like finding it, thought of Keisha. She cried softly on Jess's chest, who giggled and hugged her back.

Ramon was so focused on Maureen that she ignored the urgent signs above her. Jess and Keisha took a deep breath and leaked. Ramon, suddenly caught in the soft human hands, stretched out in the air without thinking and Maureen heard her clicks before she could feel Jess's fingers. His eye was opened. Ramon. With one fall, he hit Jess's arm. The legs of the octopus, which Jess had only known for calamari plates, were briefly armed against her. Another slap. The release of Maureen's tent brings violent hickeys to Jess's arm.

Lewis, you of all people know what an octopus is. It’s like being beaten by a stranger: electric and clammy and paradigm-shifting. Jess tried again to grab Maureen, but the octopus brought another wallop, now in the face. Keisha froze, watching Jess suffer from an octopus. All his hours of video games and cycling had not prepared him for this. He was proud to be a working man, but he had never expected such a state of mind and body. What should happen?

Keisha had never been officially out of her family, but everyone knew and seemed right about it, she thought. It was hard to tell of the weekly phone calls he made to them on Sunday when they were all sitting in the living room during a break between Sunday morning and Carte Blanche. She had moved to London from Johannesburg about a decade ago, after a painful breakup with another complex university girl. Since then, Keisha had gone through three other scary moments in London, all with the women she met at work or at a bike shop or a previous birthday party. And it has always been the same story. They would meet, talk, talk, do everything together. Then they argue, cry, the girl falls in love with someone they both know, and then leaves. Keisha was sick with it. His best friend, the first of those from London, gave him the following advice, which he had taken to heart: "Don't burn where you eat." So, Keisha logged into the app and searched for someone she had never met before. That's where he found Jess. Jess was beautiful, she thought, although not in the way Keisha was often attracted to, still, she was really beautiful. And, most importantly, no mutual. Not one! This was a rare occurrence in an incident in which he showed that he was as young and related as he had fled from Johannesburg.

In the four months, we were in a relationship, things were going well, she thought. Jess was well cared for in the low, which Keisha liked. He was weird but not terrifying, not the kind of weirdness that expected Keisha to read the same books and watch the same movies or anything. And Jess was always really happy to be alone with Keisha's friends when she was the perfect blend of friendship and dislike. No one thought Jess was inferior, but none of them could text her uninvited. It's perfect. Keisha never did Jess's boring mission - going to the library on Saturday morning, shopping, feeding her neighbor's scary fish - so she left without complaining. Without many complaints. It was great to be in a comforting time of friendship, a non-drama promise of his thirties. At one point, Keisha noticed, it seemed that they had moved in together, which was good for her because she was still legally alive with one of her titles. That is, it was good for him to this day.

While weighing his options, Keisha accidentally released his grip on Ramon, who struggled for immediate relief. Maureen slipped from behind, slipped, and fell to the ground. Deciding that the crab was a minor problem, Keisha took off her jersey and was able to wrap it around Maureen while the octopus was disturbed. Jess grabbed the side of the jersey and they both approached the first tank, ready to throw the octopus in the middle. Maureen is furious at being hit on the card, her tent clearing her throat. Ramon managed to get into the water bed - upstairs there was an open hallway window. He could, he was willing, he climbed a lamp, he went into the ceiling, he went into the hallway, and then the ground. But the cries of the women as the octopus struck the jersey stopped her. Maureen was arrested again. Who knew what he was thinking at the time, Lewis? Maybe he remembered something about his home? Maybe you thought something about Maureen? Maybe you remember an incident that happened between the two of them? Maybe it’s related to his lost eye, maybe it’s not? Does the crab remember and think? I can't say. Keisha turned and looked at the water bed and saw that Ramon was sitting in the middle of it. Maureen shuddered and shook under Keisha like a nasty gel, her eye-popping out of a sleeve hole. Seeing it, Ramon raised his logs, as if to say hello - maybe hello, he said goodbye. Then he put his fingernails on the bed.

An old fluid leak filled the flat. The water was full of time and humiliation - many memories of you, Lewis, after another quick round of masturbation, wiped your hand on the mattress without looking at the fish, which were already closing their eyes. When the bed exploded, a nearby light, which was designed to be Ramon's ladder on the window, was raised. Trying to catch the crab with one hand left in the jersey, Jess slipped back, hitting the first tank. The room tightened as it dripped slowly, slowly, and then collapsed. It struck down, sent all the flying fish. Keisha slips off the jersey, and Maureen, the escaping artist, jumps into the noisy shallow water like tented Esther Williams. Before he could be fully immersed, however, he looked up at Ramon and some understanding passed between them. I can’t pretend I know its meaning, Lewis. If I were a very good writer, I would probably try to suppress you by using words like “intimacy”, or “intimacy”, or “regret”. But those are my words, not theirs. I can't speak their language - we discarded it when we stopped being animals and started calling them humans. However, all that matters is this: whatever has passed between them has passed, and Maureen has sunk into the dark waters never to be seen again. Who knows what happened to him? Remember the window was open. Remember that he was accustomed to fighting. Remember that he had a history of using anything he encountered with his evil intentions.

Keisha, who may have been a little frustrated since the first tank crash, was still there. He liked Jess, he guessed it, but he hadn't signed up for this. Trying to escape from the normal drama of courtship, he now found himself literally in a very bad mood. So, Keisha left her relationship and went to the deepest abyss, stormed out, leaving Jess behind, shouting for her to stay. What a metaphor, Lewis, separated from someone else's apartment, surrounded by ugly water and free fish. Quickly, Keisha left the door open and water rushed out of the hall. And so is Ramon. You let yourself be taken out of your apartment, your apartment, Lewis, into the world.

When you return, it will be broken glass, floorboards full of water, a sink full of fish, and a landlord highlighting part of your signed agreement that you renounce the right to keep any pets. Jess will be released from legal action as a result, although he will soon be relocating to a location near the British Library and Mac, leaving the memories of Keisha and his PlayStation far behind. And you, Lewis, will be alone with the consequences of being caught: no deposit, octopus, or crab.

I am sure that many details in this matter are scientifically inaccurate. I'm not an ichthyologist, Lewis, I'm a poet. I wrote this because I was also kept in tanks by those who thought that carrying me was an insult. And, listen, I've done the same for others too. But I have learned that there is a difference between being caught and living. The octopus has to wage war, the crab has to scratch and cut, Jess has to learn, Keisha has to ride, I have to make news, and you - I don’t know what to do, but it can’t be this. So come home, Lewis. Come home with your twisted foundations and your cracked bed. Come home to your empty tanks and think about your decisions, too. As we all should in the end.