How to tell your son that Terry, the V of Her Name, Queen of the Fishbowl and Lady of All Five Aquatic Kingdoms, is dead too
You have done it four times yet your heart beats like it is your very first time.
Before anything else, ascertain Terry V is dead and not just doing an unorthodox breaststroke (remember Terry III).
The timing of the discovery is crucial for the next steps: Midnights and school mornings are high-risk.
If the incident occurs at midnight, remember to be kind to yourself– a swig of neat whiskey could help calm your nerves before they are frayed under the weight of the announcement.
If it is a school morning, you’ll have enough time to find Terry the VI of Her Name, Queen of the Fishbowl, and the rightful heir of the 5 aquatic kingdoms.
Either way, Terry isn’t coming back, and your job now is to make sure you break the news without breaking his heart.
If you are lucky and clever and just the right shade of Machiavellian, Terry wouldn’t have to die ever again. Cloaked in shimmering scales, she could live on in noble silence and continue to reign supreme over her kingdoms.
And maybe, just maybe, you would never have to punish yourself (or your husband) for chaotic, distracted sex — the kind that ends with a pair of still, floating googly eyes watching you from the corner of the room.
Under Watch
She cuts her hair.
a bald pumpkin
with a fringe.
Now sipping tea.
Wait
a strand
of hair
refuses
to blend in.
A sore-thumb vibe.
She licks
her burnt fingers.
Scalding hot tea
is no poetry.
Then again
the strand.
It sits up straight
Stares.
Repugnance
Like it can smell
piles of stinky laundry.
Like it can hear
the ring of falsehood
in her excuses.
She stops
licking fingers.
She stops
everything.
Under.
Watch.
What to do?
She chants,
can’t think
under the watchful eye
of the
unsleeping hair.
It grows
crisper,
more frail.
Watching
takes its toll.
When at last
it shuts its eye
She grabs
the moment.
Snip.
Roopa is a Dubai-based writer. She writes under RR Menon. Her work has been published in The Disappointed Housewife, Mythic Picnic, Bending Genres, The Airgonaut, Bath Flash Fiction anthology (forthcoming), and elsewhere, and has been nominated for Best of the Net, Best of Microfiction, and Best Small Fictions. Her debut middle-grade fiction, Chandu and the Super Set of Parents has been published by Fitzroy Books. Roopa’s Bluesky handle is @roopamenon.bsky.social, and her Twitter/X handle is @RoopaMenon1.
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