There lived some fish in a river. Various flowers came out along the river in spring. The branches of the trees overhung the river, and their beautiful crimson and rose-pink blossoms were reflected in the river.
How fun it was for the fish to look up at the blossoms that reflected in the river as they had no pleasure there.
"What beautiful blossoms they are! There must be a lot of beautiful things in the above-water world! If I was born again, I'd like to be something in the above-water world," the fish said to each other.
"Mom, I want to eat that beautiful one," a young fish said and jumped up trying to catch a flower up above.
"You can only look up at them from afar. You must never eat them even if they fall into the water," the mother-fish instructed them what to do and what not to do. But the young fish didn't want to obey what their mother said to them.
"Mom, why can't we eat them when they fall into the water?" they asked their mother.
Watching over the young fish with a thoughtful look, the mother said,
"It has been said from old times that if you eat them, something will happen on your body. You'd better not to eat anything that you are told not to eat."
"I wonder why we can't eat such beautiful things," one of them said with a slight inclination of its head to one side,
"Imagine how beautiful it will be when all of the flowers scatter and float on the water!" said another fish with its shining eyes.
They looked up at the surface of the river every day and looked forward to the time the flowers dropped down.
It was only their mother who was anxious about her naughty young fish.
"I'm afraid they'll eat scattered flowers while I'm away," she said to herself.
Butterflies and bees were flying around the blossoms all day long, and as the days passed away the blossoms were overblown.
One day, with a blast of wind, the flowers began to flutter down on the surface of the river.
"Look, flowers are falling down!" The fish in the river enjoyed watching them.
"Oh, how beautiful they are! I'm afraid my children will eat those flowers by accident," the big fish was anxious about her little fish.
The flowers fluttered down and floated away on the surface of the water one after another.
"It must be delicious!" three little fish at last swallowed some petals.
The next day their mother noticed that their bodies were colored. Weeping silently, she, said to them,
"I've told you never eat the flowers."
Their bodies, which used to be black, were colored, two of them became red and the rest had red and white spots.
It was natural that the mother was grieved to see them, because her three children had noticeable beautiful color. The water was so clear that anyone could easily see the three little fish swimming around there.
"If people spot you, it is absolutely certain they will try to catch you. So never float up on the surface to the water," the mother warned them.
In the meantime, three children living in a town came to the river as usual. It was their habitat to play there. One of them found a red fish in the river and said,
"I've happened to see a goldfish in the river! "
"Did you say you saw a goldfish in the river? It's unbelievable. It must be a gold carp," another boy said.
"Red carps can't possibly be in this river. It must be a ghost," the rest said. The children came to the riverside to find the red fish again from the next day, hoping to get it.
Their mother was anxious and asked them,
"Why do you go to the river every day?"
"It's because I found a red fish there," one of the boys answered.
"It has lived there for a long time, but it is said if you catch it, something bad will happen. So you must never go to the river again," their mother forbade them to go there. The children didn't obey her as they didn't believe what their mother said. They kept going to the river and walking around every day, hoping to find the red fish again,
One day the children at last caught the three red fish, and took them to their home.
"Mom, we got three red fish," the children said in a triumphant mood.
The mother saw the fish in a bucket caught by her children.
"What pretty fish they are! How sad the mother of those fish feels for them by now!" the mother said.
"Mom, do these fish also have their own mother?" the children asked her.
"Yes, they do. Perhaps the mother-fish is now anxious about her young fish," the boys' mother answered.
The children felt sorry to hear it.
"Let's set this fish free," one of them said.
"Let's release them in a big river so that they won't be caught again.
The children decided to let the three fish go in a big river at the edge of the town. But later, they started worrying about them.
"I wonder if the three red fish can meet their mother-fish again."
Nobody could answer this question.
A few days later, they went to the river where they had caught the three fish. But they couldn't even find a figure of red fish.
In the evening that summer, a red-fish-like cloud was sometimes seen above a tower in the town. Seeing it, the children felt sorry for the young fish. (2013/12/1 With Itaya)
Original by Mimei Ogawa
