Electric Fish

The apartment was dark except for the flash of lightning through the window, illuminating the box of Maya's things by the door. Elena had come to collect them—her books, her plants, the framed photo of their trip to New Orleans—all the detritus of five years that could now fit into two cardboard boxes.

Her iPhone buzzed in her pocket. She ignored it. It was probably her mother asking again if she'd "heard from Maya," or maybe that guy from the marketing department who'd been messaging her on LinkedIn since the split. She wasn't ready for any of it.

Instead, she moved toward the fish tank against the far wall. The goldfish—a carnival prize Maya had won on their third date, improbably named Captain—was still alive after four years, swimming in slow circles as the storm outside raged.

"You too, huh?" Elena whispered, leaning against the tank's cool glass. Her pixie cut was still strange to her, the mirror reflecting a stranger who'd hacked off twelve inches of waist-length hair three days after Maya moved out. It had felt like shedding a skin.

Another flash of lightning, closer this time. The thunder followed immediately, rattling the windows. In the sudden brightness, something caught her eye propped against the tank's stand—Maya's old baseball bat from her college softball days. Elena remembered the game where Maya had hit a home run, running the bases with that wild grin, hair escaping her ponytail, turning to find Elena in the stands. The way they'd celebrated afterward, drunk on cheap beer and new love.

Her phone lit up with a notification. She almost checked it, but stopped. Whatever waited on that screen could wait.

Elena opened the lid of the fish tank's food container. She sprinkled flakes into the water, watching Captain rise to the surface, opening and closing his mouth in that ridiculous way goldfish did, oblivious to the endings happening above him.

"See you around, Captain," she said, grabbing her boxes. The goldfish would keep swimming. The storm would pass. And somewhere, in the apartment she now called hers alone, a life she hadn't invented yet was waiting to begin.