Don’t Carp

(This is a Friday Fictioneers Submission-unfortunately, I’ve forgot to add the link and my internet connection’s now playing up but it’s quite easy to find if you search-I’d strongly recommend it, there are some great pieces on there)

It wasn’t his fault that he couldn’t be happy in the pond. For the other fish, it was enough that they were kept moist, regularly fed and protected from the herons by the net.  Alphonso had always wanted more.  Swimming from one side of the pond to the other had entertained him at first, but he’d tired of it quickly. Affecting nonchalance when the pond owner’s children threw him titbits gave him a certain fleeting amusement, though he’d invariably find himself nosing through the rushes in search of leftovers when they’d gone. His only chance of escape would to evolve into another form that could take millennia and there was no guarantee he’d be any happier then.  Given the choice, he’d never have opted to be a fish in an accountant’s garden pond but he’d been forced to take what he was given.  Like everything else, his handlers kept reminding him, the witness relocation programme had been affected by cutbacks in recent years.