There was a time when there were three independent tropical
fish shops in my general vicinity...but now it's down to just one. And it's
this really amazing place. It's squeezed in the middle of a little row of shops
where parking is never easy. On the left side is a place called Bigg Wolf Video
and trophy shop--a little dubious to say the least, and to the right is Hunan
CIty Chinese take out and liquor store! The door is unmistakable with its big
sign reading Tropical Lagoon on one side and painted clown fish on the other.
And when you open the door, you are greeted by a set of narrow steep stairs
leading down. Down into a shop in the basement nether regions of the row of
stores and restaurants.
It is owned by a guy who looks like he spent his youth
surfing in southern California. He is sometimes joined by a woman with the same
slightly washed out appearance and demeanor. Two others occasionally appear,
one could be their son and the other is a slight agile Asian boy-man covered in
tattoos who is the only one who seems to have cash register privileges besides
the owner himself. Also "living" there among the aquariums and
aquarium paraphernalia is a large tropical parrot who greets everyone with a
cheery "hello," but then stares at you with such a vacuous
expression. Once acknowledged, it peppers you with additional
"hello's" while never moving its beak. Also, there is a little shaggy
dust mop of a dog with cold crystal white eyes--that seem to look right through
you, but given any study at all and you can tell that she's just timid. And
there are two cats. An old smoky Persian mix whose tail has been inexplicably
coiffed to look like an antennae with a puff ball on the end, and a young coal
black little short-haired miss who has taken on the role of unofficial
curiosity queen. She wants to know EVERYTHING, and in that pursuit has no
boundaries.
I stopped by today and found for the first time in all the
years I've gone there that the owner was no en casa. Instead the place was in
the hands of the young Asian man and the mini-me owner's "son". The
later was only finding things for customers; the tattooed chap was clearly in
charge. It was fairly crowded and both of the clerks were quenching their
thirst from chilled glass bottles of Miller Light beer. It seemed both wrong
and perfect within an instant of reflection. I waited my turn. It's easy in
this place. There are so many things with which to keep one's mind occupied.
The customer just before me was after the same thing I was,
fresh water live plants, and so I joined him and the Asian man from a polite
distance in that area of the store. They where discussing the quality and price
of the available Brazilian Sword plants when the black cat suddenly attached
herself to the thigh of the other customer in a fashion similar to those alien
creatures who jump out of nowhere and clamp on to the hapless spaceman in order
to suck out his innards. While the cat's mission was far more benign than that,
the man's reaction was classic horrified astronaut! The clerk apologized with a
certain degree of excitement/embarrassment, which did not phase her highness in
the slightest. So, I leaned in and gentle clasped the little girl around her
midsection to extricate her from the predicament she had created. The man quickly
recovered unharmed. The cat shot me a look that said, "What the hell's the
matter with him?" I decided to walk her away from the commotion and wait
my turn at a safe distance, and she decided that snuggling against my sweatered
chest was even better than scaling the leg of the other fellow.
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