The Goldfish Who Dreamed of Baseball

Lily sat by her aquarium, watching her pet goldfish, Finley, swim lazy circles. She held her dad's old iphone in one hand and a miniature baseball in the other.

"I wish you could play baseball with me, Finny," she whispered, tapping the glass gently.

The water began to shimmer. Tiny bubbles floated up, forming a doorway of light. Finley swam toward it, and suddenly — POP! — he wasn't a fish anymore. A small boy with orange hair and sparkly blue eyes stood before her, still swimming through the air as if it were water.

"Baseball!" Finley cheered, grabbing the ball from Lily's hand. "I've watched you play every day from my bowl! Throw it!"

Lily giggled and tossed the ball. Finley leaped through the air, his body leaving trails of sparkly bubbles behind him like a shooting star. He caught the ball and threw it back with a splash, even though they weren't near water.

"Wait!" Finley said, noticing the iphone. "Let's take a picture!"

They posed together, Finley still floating slightly above the ground. The flash went off, and suddenly Finny began shrinking, turning orange and scaly again.

"Thank you for the adventure!" he bubbled as he swam back into his aquarium. "But I think I like swimming better than baseball. The water is where I belong."

Lily looked at the photo on the iphone — it showed her and Finley, both grinning, with tiny rainbow fish swimming through the air around them. Some things, she realized, were magical even if they only lasted a moment.

That night, she taped the photo to the aquarium. And sometimes, when she looked closely, she could still see Finley swimming extra-fast, as if practicing for another game of baseball.

Lily learned that friendship comes in all sizes — and that sometimes the best adventures are the ones you share with someone who sees the world differently than you do.