Cacto-naut

#deardiary #adventure #shortstory #comedy

Dear Diary,

I was at the pet store over the weekend browsing through the aisles. In the aquatic section, they had a lot of underwater coral, plants, and cute little homes for the fish. At the end of the aisle they had aquariums in many different sizes. Ones that can fit on a night stand and then the ones that need their own floor space to fit.

One of the aquariums was medium sized and very round, flipping it upside down it could pass for an astronauts helmet. Then, an idea came to my mind. Looking around to check no one was watching, I placed the fish bowl over my head. Looking through the glass felt out-worldly, like I was on a different planet. The centre was crystal clear, not much of a difference but as the glass started to curve around the sides of my head, the objects warped with it. Straight edges were no longer straight, corners were no longer 90 degrees, and circular objects and shapes were no longer that circular-they bent.

Curiously, I explored the other aisles too, I wanted to see how everything changed when I looked through this looking glass. Coral with its natural shaped clusters, its ends and edges drastically bent and curved with the dome shape of the glass wall. If you passed by it, it looked like it was going to touch you. Small bird houses, as I walked by their straight walls curved out bending the edges of the door and windows with it. As I was crossing the aisle, they slowly got bigger and curvier until they passed my line of sight.

Walking with this on my head got a little harder the longer I chose to explore. Slowing down my pace helped me stay upright without tipping myself over. I started to imagine being on another planet, exploring the landscape and imagining the kind of creatures it would inhabit. A large furry cat with the a large squirrels tail and colouring you would traditionally see on a parrot. Small mice with rabbit ears and with the cutest button nose.

The planet had no rhyme or reason on the vegetation it grew. Although they all had a shapeless appearance, they could be found in all different colours. All of the tall plants, trees, and crops bent inwards, like they were leading you down the path you were walking on. And in our world where plants speak through the energy and roots deep in the ground, these plants had actual mouths and ears to talk to one another. The sky was orange and the ground was blue, but depending on the time of day, the ground could be seen yellow, and the sky a lavender purple.

The more time I spent thinking about this imagined planet the more I wish it were real. Before I knew it, one of the staff caught me by the cat food aisle, asking that I take off the fish bowl and to put it back if I wasn't going to buy it. The thing is.....I would gladly put it back as they asked, that is, if I could take it off as easily as it was to put on. By the end of day I became the owner of a lovely fishbowl but no fish....