--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: She bought me betta fish when I was six…" description: "\"“She bought me betta fish when I was six, after I kept telling her the same story, every day, about the tanks we had in my class at school, the betta f..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4d2/jesmyn-ward-1426_blue-and-green_she-bought-me-betta-fish-when-i-was-six_665676.jpg" --- # She bought me betta fish when I was six, after I kept… ![“She bought me betta fish when I was six, after I kept telling her the same story, every day, about the tanks we had in my class at school, the betta fish, red and purple and blue and green, swimming lazily in the tanks, flashing brilliant and then dull. She came home with one on a Sunday, after…” quote by Jesmyn Ward](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4d2/jesmyn-ward-1426_blue-and-green_she-bought-me-betta-fish-when-i-was-six_665676.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4d2/jesmyn-ward-1426_blue-and-green_she-bought-me-betta-fish-when-i-was-six_665676.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4d2/jesmyn-ward-1426_blue-and-green_she-bought-me-betta-fish-when-i-was-six_665676.jpg) > ““She bought me betta fish when I was six, after I kept telling her the same story, every day, about the tanks we had in my class at school, the betta fish, red and purple and blue and green, swimming lazily in the tanks, flashing brilliant and then dull. She came home with one on a Sunday, after she'd been out all weekend. I hadn't seen her since Friday, since she told Mam she was going to the store to buy some milk and some sugar and didn't come back. When she came back, her skin was dry and flaking at the corners of her mouth, her hair stuck out in a bushy halo, and she smelled like wet hay. The fish was green, the color of pine needles, and he had stripes down his tail the color of red mud. I called him Bubby Bubbles, since he blew bubbles all day, and when I leaned over his tank, I could hear him crunching on the fish food Leonie had brought home in a sample-size bag. I imagined even then that one day I could lean over his bowl, and instead of crunching, little words would pop out the bubbles that fizzed up to the surface. Big face. Light. And love. But when the sample size of fish food ran out, and I asked Leonie to buy me more, she said she would, and then forgot, again and again, until old day she said: Give him sold old bread. I figured he couldn't crunch like needed on some old bread, so I kept bugging her about it, and Bubby got skinnier and skinnier, his bubbles smaller and smaller, until I walked into the kitchen one day and he was floating on top of the water, his eyes white, a slimy scrim like fat, no voice in his bubbles. Leonie kill things.”” [Jesmyn Ward](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jesmyn-ward/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. A child’s yearning for connection and care is mirrored in a dying fish, symbolizing loss, neglect, and the fragile nature of love. **In simple terms:** Neglect leads to loss of cherished things. Key Takeaway Cherish and tend to what you love before it fades. Themes loss care neglect memory family dynamics Mood sad nostalgic contemplative Type literary personal narrative When to use this quote - parental illness - pet ownership - childhood trauma - memory rituals Key Concepts symbolism attachment theory grief caregiving Questions to Reflect On - How do you nurture relationships under strain? - What signs indicate neglect in your life? 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The colour yellow is a mystical experience shared by everybody.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tom-stoppard/the-colours-red-blue-and-green-are-real-the-colour-yellow-is-a/) [Tom Stoppard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tom-stoppard/) > [“On Love and Happiness:When someone embarks on his research, if he ever makes it, (there is, in addition, a contingency that he/she will never…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katerina-kostaki/on-love-and-happiness-when-someone-embarks-on-his-research-if-he-ever/) [Katerina Kostaki](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/katerina-kostaki/) > [Blue and green eyes will be so common that dark brown will become the rare and newly desired eye color.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tyra-banks/blue-and-green-eyes-will-be-so-common-that-dark-brown-will-become-the/) [Tyra Banks](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tyra-banks/) > [From a distance the world looks blue and green, and the snow-capped mountains white. 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I hadn't seen her since Friday, since she told Mam she was going to the store to buy some milk and some sugar and didn't come back. When she came back, her skin was dry and flaking at the corners of her mouth, her hair stuck out in a bushy halo, and she smelled like wet hay. The fish was green, the color of pine needles, and he had stripes down his tail the color of red mud. I called him Bubby Bubbles, since he blew bubbles all day, and when I leaned over his tank, I could hear him crunching on the fish food Leonie had brought home in a sample-size bag. I imagined even then that one day I could lean over his bowl, and instead of crunching, little words would pop out the bubbles that fizzed up to the surface. Big face. Light. And love. But when the sample size of fish food ran out, and I asked Leonie to buy me more, she said she would, and then forgot, again and again, until old day she said: Give him sold old bread. I figured he couldn't crunch like needed on some old bread, so I kept bugging her about it, and Bubby got skinnier and skinnier, his bubbles smaller and smaller, until I walked into the kitchen one day and he was floating on top of the water, his eyes white, a slimy scrim like fat, no voice in his bubbles. 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