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Writing about a solitary confinement survivor

I had seven golden tetras in my aquarium.

One jumped out one night, two succumbed to white-spot parasites, one just wasted away.

Last month, I had three left, swimming strong, flicking their tiny white tipped fins, the black spots on their tail a second eye.

Then suddenly after a weekend vacation, I returned to find only two.

Today while cleaning the aquarium filter, we rescued the third one. He’d been swimming around in a tiny whirling pool of perfect darkness, all by his lonesome self, for a month.

And now, as I type, he’s swimming around in all the light and green and water, just as if he had never been in solitary confinement.

Lesson in there somewhere.

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Damyanti Biswas

Damyanti Biswas

Damyanti Biswas’s short fiction has been published at Smokelong, Ambit, Litro, Puerto del Sol, among others, and she's the co-editor of The Forge literary magazine. She's the author of YOU BENEATH YOUR SKIN, a bestselling crime novel, which has been optioned for screens by Endemol Shine. Her next #1 Amazon bestselling crime novel, THE BLUE BAR, was published by Thomas & Mercer. It received a starred review on Publishers Weekly, and was one of 2023's Most Anticipated Mysteries & Thrillers on Goodreads. Kirkus Reviews called its sequel, THE BLUE MONSOON, a compelling procedural awash in crosscurrents. Her work is represented by Lucienne Diver at The Knight Agency.

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