Up For Review:

The Fish Tank - My Aqua View (Voy, MF Cons, No Sex)

By Ray

Ivan brought his coffee to his armchair and sat down to his favorite Saturday morning show, his Fish Tank. After a week of cubicles and staring into computer screens, nothing helped him unwind like watching his fish. Especially his new fish. An exotic, tropical Angel Fish that simply kept him excited, flaunting her markings for him as she swam.

The pet shop owner, Celia, had said he had one of only 10 that had been imported into the US, so far. A completely new genus of Angel fish. The first newly identified member of the species in a hundred years. A Desdmona. He'd looked it up, both on the internet and in articles in his aquarium and fish magazines. The scientists talked about dorsal and caudal fin variants and gill cover markings that all bred true from one generation to the next. It was the color or pigmentation markings that first attracted his eye, though. He'd never seen another Angel with such markings.

A soft pink blush permeated the gill covers. The lips surrounding the Angel's mouth were a deep red, and the areas above and below the eyes were shaded in bright bluish arcs. When he'd first seen it he'd thought of a fish in make-up. The colors were so gaudy, his second thought was of a street- walker.

Celia had advised him that the breed was, as yet, extremely rare and that within certain hues those markings also bred true in each succeeding generation. He hoped so, as talking to Celia had convinced him to try and breed the Desdmona. Celia would pay him $100.00 for each one of the breed he could bring her.

He'd bought books on breeding fish, especially Angel fish, and had done further research on the internet. He'd made dietary changes for his fish and raised the water temperature. A few broad flat plants and flat rocks now dotted the floor of the tank. With his fish tank positioned just inside a window, half in sunlight, half in room light, He'd done all he could to make the conditions optimal. Now he waited and watched. No eggs yet, though the Desdmona quite often seemed to flirt with his four male Angels as she swam. He was excited, but also realized this could take some time. Still, mating or not, he enjoyed relaxing and watching his fish swimming within his custom built tank.

An hour had passed and he was relaxed, sipping the last of his third cup of coffee and beginning to think of the day ahead. He needed to mow the lawn, wash and wax the car, and then there was the Jordan's Anniversary party, next door, later. He had yet to wrap their gift, A gaudy fish-shaped wall clock that Conard would hate, but Alexis would love.

Ivan decided on one last cup of coffee and another twenty minutes appreciating his fish before getting started, rising to fetch another cup.

As Ivan was returning to his chair, he looked in the Fish Tank for the Desdmona and didn't see her at first. He had to shift in his seat to find her and when he did, she was behind a few taller plants with one of the male Angels. They were swimming in tight circles above one of the broad leafed plants he'd put in. 'Ah, maybe,' he thought, before being distracted by a sight beyond the tank, outside the window.

Leaning a little further, resting an elbow on the chairs arm for support, Ivan began watching two Cardinals through both the tank and his window. They were building a nest in the crook of a tree limb. Well, it was spring, and unseasonably warm for a late April morning with temperatures in the high 70's. The male was working diligently to weave an especially long blade of grass into the intricacies of the nest, pushing and prodding at the long blade. Ivan was fascinated as the Bird would first push in one portion of the blade then straighten to examine his work before shifting the remainder and tucking it into another nearby nook.

The female Cardinal dropped below his view and he raised himself in his seat to follow her movements. It was then that he saw his neighbors sunning themselves in their back yard.

Con and Alex were lying beside one another in loungers, taking in the morning sun. Both were teachers, he at college level in Mathematics and she at the elementary level in all subjects and adult secondary education in English. It was always amazing to him how 'in shape' they both had remained. The teachers during his own schooling had always seemed to have had two shapes, they were either 'pear shaped' from sitting behind their desks all day, or they were thinner than the rulers they enjoyed slapping on a student's desk when startling them from their reveries. He remembered them all as seeming so 'old' as well, with only two exceptions, Pami Mathews, his Journalism teacher and a student- substitute named Maria who taught English Common Skills for six weeks. At the height of puberty he'd had many a fantasy about both women.

Con, in his early forties had a receding hairline and salt and pepper hair, but kept himself in shape through jogging and tennis. Alex, in her late twenties was a petite thing with a massive, drool inciting, chest. A competition class archer, she played tennis with her husband, swam a great deal and was always dragging Con out in their boat for fishing trips. Con neither enjoyed the water, nor fishing, but liked taking a good book to read while Alex fished.

Ivan perched on the arm of his chair and thought he'd take a moment to enjoy this scene before doing his weekend chores.

It was what he considered and idyllic scene, one he'd always wished he and someone special could share. His own past dating life was sporadic and he'd never found a partner who stayed longer than a few months before moving on. But Con and Alex seemed always to be happy together and were holding one another's hands, between the two loungers, as they relaxed. Con reached for a tall iced tea glass and took a sip as Alex turned and spoke to him, tugging lightly on his hand as she did so. Con rose from his seat and picked up a bottle of tanning lotion from his side table. Alex turned over in her lounger, reaching behind to undo her bathing top's strap and laying face down in her chaise.

Beginning with her calves, Con massaged the oil into Alex' legs and feet first, before moving up to her back. He was working slowly and seemed to be talking to her as he worked the oils into her skin. His hands looked to be, alternately, both massaging firmly and teasing gently as her went about his task. Con paused occasionally in his rubbing to lightly place a kiss here or there. Behind the knees and to either side of her hips just above her suit he kissed as he moved. He used his teeth once, biting her cheek through the suit bottom as his hands moved up her spine.

Alex lay quietly through most of it, though she did seem to start once or twice and stretched like a cat at his finishing move. For his finishing move, Con had filled one palm with oil and, as he rubbed his palms together to evenly coat both hands, he stepped over the lounger with one leg so he straddled it above her. Placing both hands to the sides of her chest he slid them beneath her, under her large breasts. His arms moved vigorously then as his hands seemed to move up and down, side to side and in large circles beneath her. Alex raised herself to her elbows when his hands went to her breasts.

A closer movement distracted Ivan and he refocused his eyes on the Fish Tank itself, rather than through it. His Desdmona was swimming in tight circles before his eyes, as if trying to attract his attention. When he had focused on her again, she swam right up to the glass, facing him and simply held her position. Whether she was studying him, asking for more food, or what, Ivan did not know. But the movement of her red mouth as she breathed made it seem as if she were blowing kisses to him through the thick glass. Long moments she remained there, before turning and swimming away. The movements as she turned had a kind of flounce to them, as if in admonishment of his looking elsewhere rather than at her. The movements of her fins as she swam away seemed kind of flirty to him and he shook his head smiling a the little Desdmona's actions. He'd almost believed his fancies for a moment. Then he remembered his neighbors.

Looking through the tank into the neighbor's yard once again, he found he may have missed the best part of the action. Con and Alex were moving towards their patio doors as he turned his attention to them once more. Since they were moving mostly away from him, he didn't have the view he'd have wished for. Alex was carrying her top in her left hand as she walked, the globes of her breasts appearing only in partial side view, teasingly, as she moved. She was slightly ahead of Con and seemed to be leading him. Her hand, hidden by his body, was at his waist level. His Swim suit slightly askew as he followed behind her.

When he'd looked back to them, they'd been only a few short steps from their patio door and were soon out of sight within the house.

Looking nearer, the two cardinals were standing side by side on the edge of their nest. They were touching beaks repeatedly and with every touch, the male was puffing out his feathers as if in pride.

Ivan decided that he'd been lazy long enough and began rising to begin his chores. Glancing once more within the Fish Tank, he found what he believed were eggs had been deposited on the broad flat leaf of the plant where the Desdmona and the male had been swimming earlier. The male swam gently nearby, as if guarding them. The Desdmona herself was now swimming lazy circles with another of his male Angels near a wide flat rock at the other end of the tank.

'Ah, Spring and love,' Ivan thought as he moved towards the door. "Spring, Spring Fever and allergies! Grass clippings, hay fever and bird droppings on my car," he was heard to mutter as he left the room.

Or he would have been heard to mutter these things, had he not been alone.