Water Garden Stories

Jonny Fish Pond and Robert Koi

Fish called me up late that night. "-Did I wake you up?" he asks me.
"Huh?" I said groggily, "its almost 2am, of course you woke me up" I said.
"Good" said Jonny (Fish). Fish Pond was always ready for jokes ever since he started laughing at his own name. And when he met Robert Koi, back in 1973 at school, that was it.  "Fish Pond", everybody called him that, ever since I remember, and together with Koi they would always have us laughing. Until our teacher Miss Clavel, one night said: something here is not right. All this laughter is to no avail. and then she got each of us a pail and we were sent to build the school water garden. You would think this would stop a class of kids from joking. No way. and then Walter Garden joined our class, towards the end of the year. "Could you bring me some water Garden?" said Koi, the first time he joined us at the garden pond. We were on the floor with laughter, but Water Garden, that's what we called him ever since, just went, silently as a fish and brought the water.

For years Water Garden kept his silence never saying a word, unless it was with his very best friends. At first Fish Pond and Koi thought it was because of them, but then it turned out that Water Garden had been silent at his former school too. It seems the new school helped Water Garden. He liked his new nick name which made him an important part of our class. Years later I was on a fishing trip, and met Koi. He told me that Water Garden actually had a very hard time till he met us, and that Water Garden was now an active astronaut at Nasa! Wow. And he never forgot his friends and nickname. He was taking a pair of Koi fish on an experiment to outer space. He also now had a PhD. - Dr. Water Garden. Go figure.

Koi became a car dealer, and is doing well.

Fish Pond and I stayed in touch, and eventually he married my sister. They live a very happy life, but have nothing to do with water gardens or fish ponds. He has a small musical instrument shop called Ghoti. I once asked him what the name means. Its "fish" of course - he said. "In chinese?" - I asked.
"No, in English," he said "Gh is f like in 'enough'. O is i, like in the plural of 'women'. And ti is sh like in 'nation'". So there you have it. Ghoti is fish. "That's not English" I said, "thats Ongloti!"