This one time at christian camp…
(Andy in Lake Karipiro, Christian Camp 2007)
A hipster I know once decorated a makeshift cafe by putting goldfish on all the tables. They were barely alive in small jars filled with dirty tap water.
None of the city kids with their modern allergies and soy hot chocolates cared. After enduring twice daily Church services with haybales instead of chairs, they had bigger concerns than God’s small creatures. Andy was the king of these city kids, a true Church celebrity. He would lighten the mood of the Church services with his Jackass stunts.
New Years Day 2007 Andy announced he was going to swallow some of the goldfish.
The crowd cheered him on as he brought three fish out. I sat anxiously behind 500 people waiting for someone to stop him. As he lowered the first goldfish into his mouth I sprinted up the hay aisle and snatched the jar containing the other two.
After camp my friends left with Andy to go to a beach house. They neglected to invite me. I was left to drive home alone, with the twenty goldfish I adopted still in their jars.
One of the goldfish died almost immediately after I left the camping grounds. I pulled over and gave him a funeral, not sure what to do I threw him into Lake Karipiro. For the next kilometre I drove with tears gushing as I watched all but two of these creatures float to the tops of their jars. I felt lonelier every time I pulled over to throw a small orange body into the lake.
I prayed the last two would survive the trip home, but shortly after Lake Karipiro turned into Waikato River both had glazed eyes and their bellies sticking up. They too were returned to the water.
A month would go past before either Andy or I would go back there, and in that time we became friends.
It was a short lived friendship.
28 January 2007 Andy did a back flip into the Waikato River and broke his neck on the way down. His body was found upstream from where I had thrown the dead goldfish. It put things into perspective, but three years on I don’t particularly like goldfish anymore because they remind me of Andy’s death.
