The Goldfish in the Bull Market

The _goldfish_ had been dead for three days before Marcus finally noticed. It floated belly-up near the plastic castle, a tiny orange martyr to his own inattention.

"You're going to flush him?" Elena asked from the doorway. They hadn't been _friends_ since the layoff announcement, since she'd taken the severance and he'd stayed. The distance between them now felt less like two cubicles and more like two different species of grief.

"It's just a fish," Marcus said, though his hands trembled as he netted it.

Outside, the _bull_ market raged on. His portfolio swelled while everything else withered. He'd made more money this quarter than in his entire first year at the firm, but he couldn't remember the last time he'd eaten a meal that didn't come from a vending machine. The market's horns gored through his savings account, leaving him rich and hollow.

Elena's _cat_ wound between his legs as he stood at the office sink. She'd brought the cat in—a forbidden comfort in the sterile workplace—as if daring them to fire her too. The animal purred against his ankle, a small, insistent demand for presence.

"I got a job offer," she said. "San Francisco."

Marcus's _palm_ pressed against the cold glass of the aquarium. The remaining fish darted through water that had grown cloudy with neglect.

"That's good," he said, and meant it.

"Marcus."

"What?"

"The fish died because you stopped seeing it." She stepped closer, her hand hovering near his shoulder but not touching. "I'm worried you're going to float too."

He looked at her then, really looked, and saw the fear beneath her professional exterior. She wasn't leaving because she wanted to—she was fleeing because she'd seen what happens to people who stay. The goldfish hadn't died from neglect; it had died from the slow suffocation of a world that had forgotten how to breathe.

"Take the cat," Marcus said, finally letting himself touch her arm. "Please. Just... remember to feed it."

She left two weeks later. The market crashed a month after that. Marcus lost most of his portfolio but found himself surprisingly relieved. He bought a new fish—a bright betta that flared at its own reflection—and finally learned to see the water.