I was stabbed by a dead fish.

sony a7C ii | 40mm f/2.5 G
f/4.5 | 1/125s | ISO 2500

I was stabbed by a dead fish. It was impressive given its apparent state and lack of life. Blood gleamed on my ring finger tip as a mortified Chinese woman apologized profusely. It was the near conclusion of my endeavor to curate the necessary ingredients for my hot pot. Driving my son to swimming class, I struck an intense craving for the dual broth delicacy on the freeway off-ramp while avoiding a recently deceased raccoon.

Sometimes it feels like the things that happen in my day-to-day life are too extraordinary to be believed and should only be found on the pages of my most recent fictional novel, although perhaps not the same one that I’m reading right now…that one is filled with magical cats and a very grumpy, moody wizard.

The funny thing was that it wasn’t even my fish. The lady behind me in the T&T Supermarket checkout line had chosen to pile on her groceries quite a bit too close to mine. The conveyor belt churned and churned, ignoring its “stop now” sensor. All of the rest of her groceries pushed against mine, creating a large traffic jam that began to spill over the sides of the checkout lane. As I was trying to keep the groceries from toppling over to the floor, the dead whole fish attacked with its bones from within its plastic bag and pierced my finger through.