Training Isabel by:
Ron-Tyler Budhram
CW: Animal abuse. Isabel’s parents are concerned with teaching their child about responsibility and how to keep something alive—rather than simply to teach the four-year-old about death. They figure life is dreary enough, and teaching Isabel about death by getting her a fish would be cruel, a little too macabre, a senseless waste of money. They are not that lazy. Her father takes the reins on this endeavor and makes it his own. He has embraced the hobby of fishkeeping and now he wants to do something fun with his daughter, even though their personalities seem to demonstrate the beginning of a fundamental clash. Isabel doesn’t appreciate his insistent, forceful approach. She doesn’t like him. Generally, she rebels against him. But specifically, she decides to experiment with the fish. Instead of dechlorinator, she puts bubble soap into the tank. Her father’s shimmering school of neon tetras die. The child is at once shocked that the fish die so immediately, that she really did kill his fish, but she is also pleased when she sees her father’s crestfallen face. The neighbor comes over that afternoon, the babysitter, twelve-yearold Quinn, whom Isabel idolizes. From her time-out on the stairs, Isabel tells Quinn what she did. But the older girl has already taught the younger one all about death while playing in the woods. In fact, she’s made Isabel kill a number of bugs and frogs in the most gruesome way they could: rock bashing. Both got so carried away with the glee of the activity that they thought nothing of it. When Isabel tells Quinn about the bubble soap, her face draws down into a gloom; she feels guilty as Quinn stifles laughter with hands clamped over her face, with gaps between her fingers like the bars of a cage. Don’t worry, Quinn says. They’re just fish, and fish die. They were gonna die anyway. Isabel’s mom stomps down the stairs in her black boots and says, No, they were not going to die. Isabel killed them on purpose, and now she’s being punished. So, go home Quinn honey, it’s late. Isabel’s mom, an animal-rights activist on Facebook, has just gotten off
