Day 245

The fishpond was clogged again.
He was quite eager to see what it was this time.
Last week it had been a bag of gold buttons - real gold.
Week before it was a pearl necklace, fake pearls but still fetched a good price.

This time as he bagged his fishes and dumped them into a bucket, hands greedily grabbing
onto the water pump, practically squealing in delight at the sight of another bag.
This bag, unlike the other few, was a dark red and felt quite heavy.
Opening it his, hands swiftly reached in to grasp something soft, cold and... pulsing?
As he pulled it out he saw it was a small heart.
A living heart.

He threw it into the trash and prayed next time it would be something valuable again.
That night he swore he could still hear it beating, hear the rubbish bag crinkling.

The next time the fishpond got clogged he was far less eager to fix it.
As he reached into the pond this time he found a child's arm, its' tiny hand wedged into the filter.
It was grasping a ceramic tile.

The words on the tile were an eerily familiar list.

Item 1: Nine gold buttons
Item 2: One pearl necklace
Item 3: My heart