Incased world

Richard vibrated with excitement. His mother handed him the newspaper and the front page announced where they would be going for his 10th birthday.

The Royal Aquarium hosts a variety show of unparalleled dimensions for its 1897 Easter event. The performances will commence at 10 a.m. with troupes of performing animals, clever illusions and the high dive act of Merry Latford. She will be diving from dizzying heights into the shark-infested tank. Over 400 artists, 200 varieties of performers along with additional variety of fish, frogs and other animals in the aquariums will be on display.

Richard rushed back to his room and dressed in his Sunday clothes and pulled upon his two heavy leather shoes. He rushed to the front door and awaited his mother. Lilian, Richard’s mother, smoothed out the front of her dress, reached out her gloved hand. She and her son began a steady walk to the Royal Aquarium.

Richard felt the soft leather gloves in his hands and looked up at his mother, whose face glimmered with a soft pink rouge, her eyelids and eyebrows were colored dark and her lips glowed with a soft pink red. Her hair was captured in a bright blue bow and mother’s precious ‘never to be touched’ pendant dangled around in neck. “Was this his mother?” was the first thought that instantly possessed him. They never had a farthing of extra money, yet today she was taking him to spend at least three for his birthday.

He quickly forgot this question as music played from down the street and Richard raced to the musicians’ setup in front of the Royal Aquarium.

Richard’s mind and feet trailed up against the outdoor stage where a large sign proclaimed the visionary violinist Leslie Lyne would play tunes more charming then the pied piper. Some in the crowd danced while others clapped as this soft beauty, also baked in makeup and lipstick, played lively Irish tunes. Richard again felt his mother’s gloved hand on his arm as she moved him toward the entrance. The man at the door smiled and only took one of the farthings.

“Beauty pays not at Gartos’ gate,” said the man, with a quick wink and broad smile.

Lilian returned the smile and repocketed the other farthing. She once again released Richard’s hand as he darted to view the fish and other animals contained in the small aquariums. He thought so small and separated from others and nothing like the ocean that was their former home. He understood they were separated in their own space for protection, yet it robbed them of some of the beauty without the contrast of their fellow ocean creatures.

Richard swam around the room glancing into the dozens of walled-in glass worlds. The creatures in each were amazing and everyone seemed enthralled by the creatures darting about in the waters. Not all were enthralled by the water inhabitants. Frank Maury swam around the room not looking for water prey but seeking Lilian’s touch.

“Frank,” smiled Lilian. She tried to sound like she was surprised to see him.

“Lovely Lilian, I am glad to have time to get out today,” he noted, and reached out to touch her hand.

Richard had glanced at Constable Maury talking to his mother and assumed he was asking about the suits that his mother was repairing for the constable. Richard wisped into another room where a scientist was describing how a deep-sea octopod produced a glowing ring around their mouths when they were ready to mate. When the scientist described the yellowish glow it gave off, Richard thought of the pink glowing lips his mother wore that evening. Yet, the thought was quickly forgotten when the scientist showed the excited audience how intelligently and quickly an octopus could escape from a jar. He had scooped up the black and green creature and shoved it into a tall jar and placed a lid slightly ajar on it. The creature somehow forced the top off and jumped out of the jar into a waiting aquarium.

Richard hurried from one display to the next, stopping briefly at each of the spots to witness a magician or other performer for a brief moment. The lives of the sea creatures were to enthralling to be distracted much by the human entertainment, but he did want to be witness to the high dive dare-devilment. As he was watching a school of bright yellow and black fish dart in a tank, he realized he had been running around the building for a long time and his mother had not once checked up on him. He dashed his eyes around the room and spotted her seated on a bench beside constable Maury with his gloved hand gently on her hands.

Richard’s eyes met his mother’s eyes. She gave a brief smile and returned to talking with the constable. Richard returned to scanning multiple fish tanks and the performers in the room. Then the call came to watch the death-defying diver. Richard zipped into a sprint for the outside courtyard. He quickly collided with a crowd. He struggled to get past any of the jammed pack of adults moving toward the courtyard entrance. He noticed a bench set against an open window. He moved left and hopped upon the bench. He looked out the window and thought if he jumped just right he could land on the grass lawn just past the bushes and concrete outside the window.

Richard leaped quickly and strong, yet not enough of his strength pushed him past the bushes and concrete. He crashed and all went black.

As he pulled himself out of what felt like a dream, he could hear his mother’s voice quiet and solid. He opened his eyes. There was his mother, the bow out of her hair and wrapped around his forehead. Her former pink glowing lips smudged and the dark makeup around her eyes rolling down her face. Her soft gloves lying on the ground and her firm loving hands gripping him in her arms.

“Mother, I am okay,” he managed to stutter.

She smiled and hugged him.

A doctor from the crowd was checking over him and gave Lilian permission to take him home. She scooped him up and trekked back in a dress smudged in dirt and almost no makeup left. She cried and Richard pulled closer as a little blood stained the bow she had been wearing.

Her fleeting time as Lilian placed back behind the floating glass.