Mountain Lake Minnow

Things have been on a roll for Minnow in the past six months. On the bright side, someone is gifting Minnow a regular allowance while Minnow fritters her time away in the pond. On the dark side, that benefactor is Uncle Sam, or more specifically, the NYS Dept of Labor. Focusing on the half pond of water that she can still swim in, Minnow thinks of it as a rather cushy option.

When it rains, it pours, and Minnow feels that force of nature even though she dwells deep in the pond. In March Minnow swam across the Pacific ocean - quite a feat for a small fish - to visit her family and scaly pals in the South China waters. It took her a month to swim back, and by then a new life solo awaited her. It was akin to a river fish transforming to become an ocean fish - Minnow leaves the rest to her readers' imagination.

In May a chance opportunity came along to swim upstream to an Andean lake by the name Lago Titicaca in the land of the Incans. Minnow arrived to be told by a shaman that her feline companion - whose ashes Minnow decided to bring based on a hunch - should be buried in the bespoke lake, as "Titi" means puma, or feline. It so happened that for Minnow's health the shaman also advised her to harness feminine energy from this highest navigable lake in south America. (Lago Titicaca, for the Incans, is the sacred lake of feline and feminine energy.) So up swam Minnow after some challenging pilgrimage across the mountainous southern Peru.

On the last day of the surreal trip, Mr Raul the shaman revealed that Minnow had an Andean past life and should visit the Bolivian side of Lago Titicaca for a recall of this chapter. Fish oh fish, why didn't he say so earlier? And why does everything point to this one mysterious and vast water that is too cold to for a small fish to swim in?

For the sake of unearthing her past, for the sake of the Incan's prophesized imminent reactivation of their solar disc, for the sake of revisiting her most beloved deceased feline now bathing in Incan blessing, Minnow perhaps need to swim not only upstream but across the Lago next time.