“Well, we don’t typically see fish here—it’s more of a specialized field to work with aquatics—but I can certainly take a look and see if it’s something that needs to be referred out to one of the larger facilities nearby. What exactly are your concerns?” I ask, as I look down at the goldfish swimming in the glass container again.
“Um... she’s just not eating,” the younger one responds.
“Okay, do you have a parent or guardian with you?”
“I’m eighteen years old,” the older one says.
“Ok, well let’s go to the back and we’ll see what’s wrong.”
The two girls follow me to the examination room at the back of the facility, placing the glass bowl on the table as I wash my hands and pull on gloves. “Okay, have there been any recent dietary or environmental changes? Is there anything I should know about before I perform the examination?”
The older girl snorts and then coughs, trying to conceal her laughter as my eyebrows raise. The younger girl maintains a straight face and responds, “Nope.”
I gently reach into the bowl and touch the fish with a brush that’s tender. The fish moves and continues to swim around contently. There are no signs of external infection, discoloration, swelling, or injury to their scales. It looks like a regular goldfish you'd find at a pet store with normal levels of activity and health. Certainly nothing that I’d suggest they see a specialist for, which would be an extremely expensive bill.
“Do you have their food with you?” I ask.
The younger girl nods and retrieves a container marked'goldfish food'from her crossbody bag. I pop the top of the container, pick out a single flake, and drop it into the bowl. The fish instantly swims towards it and gobbles up the flake happily.
Okay… so the fish was hungry. Are these girls messing with me?
“She’s healed!” the older one says dramatically, gesturing with her arms widely.
My eyebrows raise as the younger one continues to look straight ahead at me, curiously.
I walk to the sink, take off my gloves, and rinse my hands because I’m a professional and I’ve seen stranger things than this. Plus, they’re young and maybe don’t know how to care fortheir fish.
“Just continue to keep an eye on them. If you purchased it recently, they may still be adjusting to their new and unfamiliar environment. Goldfish can be fickle. One day they might want to eat, and the next they don’t.” I smile and nod at them both. “So, I need to close the shop soon for our lunch break, but was there anything else that I could help you two with today?”
The older one looks at the younger one, who is still staring at me intently without saying a word. She nudges her as if she’s trying to get her to respond. “Yes, is there anything else you want to ask the nice Dr. Keating,Riley?”
I stand waiting impatiently as I glance at the time. We should be closing for lunch now and I'm supposed to meet up with Wilder for pizza however, that thought freezes as the name of the young girl registers in my mind.
My eyes snap back to the little girl with chestnut brown hair and green eyes whose name is...
Riley?
Chapter 27 – Teagan
Eleven years ago…
I’m so tired of crying.
Every day, as I wait for the bus at the end of my parents’ lane, I’m reminded of him.
I see his truck pull into the driveway, ready to work with our dairy farm’s veterinarian, and I hate him.
I hate that he lied to me.
I hate that I believed him.
I hate that I told him I loved him.
I hate that he told me he loved me back.
And I hate that I was stupid enough to think he’d love a sixteen-year-old girl still in high school.
And I hate his wife.
