The Goldfish at Market Close

The bear market had been eating Marcus alive for six months. His portfolio down forty percent, his girlfriend gone, his soul feeling hollowed out like something a zombie had chewed on and spit back into the wreckage of his formerly comfortable life.

He stood at the kitchen counter at 2 AM, staring blankly at a plastic container of wilted spinach that had been in his refrigerator since before the crash. The expiration date had passed three weeks ago. Everything was expiring. His options. His lease. His patience.

On the counter beside him, Gerald—the goldfish his ex had left behind—circled his bowl in endless, patient loops. Marcus envied the fish. Gerald didn't care about bull runs or bear markets. Gerald didn't check his phone compulsively, didn't wake up at 3 AM sweating over positions that had turned against him. Gerald just swam.

"You're the only one who hasn't abandoned me, aren't you?" Marcus whispered to the fish.

Gerald surfaced, opened his tiny mouth, blew a bubble.

Marcus felt something crack open in his chest—not the good kind. The kind that felt like weeping in the bathroom of his office building while everyone else celebrated the rally that wasn't.

The spinach caught his eye again. He remembered Clara standing in this exact spot, seven months earlier, sautéing it with garlic, humming some song he couldn't name now. She'd said something about how they needed more green in their diet. More life.

He hadn't understood then what she really meant. She wasn't talking about vegetables.

The phone buzzed on the counter—Asian markets opening. Another day to survive. Marcus found himself wondering what it would feel like to be the goldfish. To just keep swimming in circles, the same small world, over and over, without needing it to mean anything.

Instead, he dumped the spinach in the trash, fed Gerald a pinch of flakes, and opened another trading app. The zombie numbness was easier than the alternative. At least zombies didn't feel the loss of everything they'd once believed they couldn't live without.

The bear would end eventually. The bull would return. Some things never would.