Sunday Short: Aperture by Jennifer Mills

Of course his mother was too short-sighted to buy them a tank, so for the first few days Confucius—the name was Helen’s idea—lived in temporary digs, a plastic juice bottle with the top cut off with scissors, until Jeff finally yielded to its persistence and bought a glass fishbowl, a squat sphere that sat like a model planet on the counter, in the place where he usually dropped his keys. For weeks Confucius did laps around its planet, glowering at him. Reminding him. He hated it. Its eyes took everything in and give nothing away.

This is a rather lovely piece about a man living in China with his girlfriend, only to be promptly visited by his American parents. The short explores themes of isolation and relationship breakdown rather wonderfully through the use of a goldfish named Confucius, who is as quickly out of Jeff and Helen's life as he arrived in. You can read Aperture care of the Meanjin website here.