One fish, many outfits.
Two Pictures
Xiao Jin was halfway across the pond when someone asked him to hold still.
He slowed beneath a lily leaf and looked up. Two children sat on opposite sides of the water, each with a sheet of paper and a box of coloured pencils.
“We’re drawing you,” said the girl.
“I can see that,” said Xiao Jin. “Or I could, if you turned the paper around.”
The boy lifted his drawing. Xiao Jin saw a long yellow shape with a red patch near its head.
“That’s a good beginning,” he said.
The girl raised hers. Her fish had a white head and a broad black mark across its back.
Xiao Jin considered both.
“Am I in both pictures?”
“Of course,” the girl said.
The boy leaned across the pond to see her page.
“You’ve put the black in the wrong place.”
“No, I haven’t.”
“It’s farther back.”
“It isn’t from here.”
Xiao Jin turned to look at his own back. By the time he had completed the turn, he could no longer remember which part he had meant to inspect.
Hold Still
“Swim past me again,” the boy said.
Xiao Jin obliged. The boy bent over his paper and made several quick marks.
“Now come this way,” the girl called.
Xiao Jin turned. The water rippled around his tail.
“Slowly, please.”
He swam more slowly. The girl added a little yellow near the edge of a black patch.
“See?” she said, holding up her page.
The boy shook his head. “There’s more red than that.”
“There is on your side.”
“It’s the same fish.”
“I know. We’ve both been talking to him.”
Xiao Jin stopped beneath the lily leaf again. The shade was pleasant, and he could listen to them from there.
The boy moved to the end of the stone ledge, trying to see the girl’s side of the pond. His pencil box slid after him.
“Careful,” she said.
He caught it before it reached the water.
“I nearly lost the yellow.”
“You’ve still got the red,” she said.
Xiao Jin came out from beneath the leaf.
“I have both,” he said.
The Other Bank
The girl set down her pencils.
“Let’s change places.”
The boy carried his paper around the pond. The girl took her drawing to the stone ledge. They sat where the other had been sitting and waited for Xiao Jin.
He swam towards the girl first. From her new place, she could see the red near his head and a sweep of yellow along his side.
“Oh,” she said.
The boy leaned over the water. Xiao Jin turned beneath him, and the black mark appeared across his back.
“Oh,” the boy said.
They looked at each other.
“Yours is still too yellow,” the girl told him.
The boy looked at her page. “Yours is still too black.”
Xiao Jin passed between them.
“But I can see why,” she added.
The boy nodded. “So can I.”
They each picked up a pencil.
The girl added a small red patch near the head of her fish. The boy put a little more black on the back of his.
“Are they finished?” Xiao Jin asked.
“Nearly,” said the girl.
The boy held up his paper. “I need you to turn around once more.”
Xiao Jin turned.
“Not that way.”
He turned the other way.
“Now I can’t see your head.”
“Neither can I,” Xiao Jin said.
A Third Picture
At last, the children set their pencils down.
They held up their drawings together. One fish had more red and yellow; the other had more black and white. Xiao Jin swam from one side of the pond to the other, taking a good look at each.
“Which one looks most like you?” the boy asked.
Xiao Jin paused beneath the surface.
The water had become still enough for him to see a pale shape above his own. The shape turned when he did, and a band of red appeared beside its eye.
“That one,” he said.
The children leaned forward. Their shadows crossed the water.
“Which one?” the girl asked.
“The one between you.”
She looked at the boy. He looked at her.
Xiao Jin rose a little closer to the surface to point with his nose. The water moved, and the pale shape broke into a dozen wavering pieces.
“It was there,” he said.
The children waited. The ripples widened towards the bank.
The girl held her drawing over the pond. For a moment, its reflection floated beside Xiao Jin.
“There’s mine,” she said.
The boy held his out too. His page tilted, and the pencil box slid towards the edge again.
This time, the girl caught it.
“You nearly lost the yellow.”
“And the red,” he said.
They set the box safely between them and looked down at their two pictures. A drop of water had landed on the corner of the boy’s page. The girl handed him the clean edge of her sleeve, and he touched it carefully to the drop.
Xiao Jin swam once more through the patch of sunlight. Both children looked up.
“Hold still,” they said together.
He did, for nearly a whole moment.
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