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There was that one time when Maya had brought home a cat, Claudine hadn’t exactly been expecting it, but after so many years with Maya, she knew Maya was stupidly weak to animals. After a week she had accepted Maya and their impromptu pet, often being the one to feed it every morning before she went off to work.
After how content Maya seemed with having just the cat (which they eventually named Kuro for the color of its fur), she figured Maya wouldn’t bring any other animals home. Instead, here she was opening the fridge to a… lizard? Salamander? Fish? What the fuck was this.
“TENDOU MAYA!” Claudine screeched as she slammed the fridge door, grabbing the dark granite counter of the kitchen sink for support. All she wanted was a glass of orange juice, and there in front of her sat a creature of surely alien origins in a plastic Tupperware container.
Maya was immediately woken up from her nap, her eyes shooting wide open when she heard Claudine. What could be wrong? Was there a murderer in the house? Did Claudine injure herself? Maya swung open the door, running and sliding down the hallway in her socks. She then hopped over the balcony and landed on the ground with a somersault. Her eyes were alert and ready to protect Claudine from any danger. No bastard would touch her Claudine!
“Maya, what the fuck are you doing,” Claudine was surprised when she saw the critter in the fridge, but when she saw Maya barrelling down the upstairs hallway and vaulting over the side of the balcony barrier, she was stupefied.
Maya looked at Claudine, “Claudine? Are you in danger?”
“No?”
“I see,” Maya rested her stance. This may be worse than Maya thought. Claudine could be mad at her. That would be bad, very bad. “What is it you require of me?” She stood up straight, fixing her dress shirt that she never removed from after work and mindlessly retying her tie.
“Have you looked in the fridge today?”
“Yes, I have. Is there something wrong with its contents?”
“Yes. Go open it,” Claudine prepared to back away.
Maya did as she was told, opening both the fridge doors and letting out a light breeze of cold air, “Is there something wrong?”
“Don’t tell me you’re blind, Maya. What the hell is that— that creature sitting in the Tupperware right in front of you?!”
“Are you talking about Charlie?”
“It has a name?”
Maya nodded, ducking to observe Charlie in his tub of fairly cold water. Upon deeming the animal fit for the world again, she grabbed the large Tupperware with both hands, setting it down on the kitchen island.
Claudine fled quickly, already at the other end of the table, “What the hell is… Charlie?”
“An axolotl!” Maya opened the top of the box with childish glee, stirring up the water in attempts to wake Charlie up.
“A what now?’
“An axolotl, otherwise known as the Mexican walking fish, is a neotenic salamander related to the tiger salamander. Although the axolotl is colloquially known as a “walking fish”, it is not a fish, but an amphibian. They are great swimmers and live entirely under the water.” Maya recited the information as if it came straight from a Wikipedia page, and if Claudine wasn’t so terrified of it—the axolotl’s—beady black eyes and unnerving thin lipped smile, she would have been impressed.
“Why is there one in our home,” It was a question, but it wasn’t said as one. Claudine just wanted to have answers to questions she didn’t know whether she wanted answered or not.
“A friend of a co-worker of mine said they couldn’t take care of him anymore, and I volunteered to take him,” Charlie stirred, blinking and waving his spindly arms around as he kept just above the bottom of the container. “Isn’t he adorable?”
“No! Absolutely not! Merde , Maya he looks terrifying with that smile on his face!”
“But look at him!” Maya crouched behind the table on the side of Charlie, mimicking the axolotl’s expression with her head just over the counter, and if Claudine was being perfectly honest, the pair together looked absolutely adorable. Maya had sucked in her cheeks, pressing her lips together and attempting to smile. She put her hands behind her ears, making the axolotl’s wavy gills with her hands. Next to her, the axolotl merely opened and closed its mouth happily. There wasn’t much of a way to tell whether or not Charlie was content in his Tupperware, but he seemed to be enjoying himself with his gills flared out.
“God, you look like an idiot,” Claudine commented as she came out of hiding, clutching her stomach from laughter. “Hold on, what was he doing in the fridge?”
“He was sick when I got him, and the internet said to put him in the fridge. He seems like he’s doing alright.” Maya stood back up and looked down at the axolotl who stared back at her.
“Why the hell would putting him in the fridge make him better?”
“Apparently axolotls go into hibernation when they’re really cold so they can get better. If Charlie’s energy doesn’t show that it works, then I don’t know what does.” Charlie was indeed swimming around in his Tupperware, eager to be in this new environment. “Do you want to help me bring him upstairs?”
Claudine still felt that the liza— salamander was a little odd, but seeing that Maya loved it so dearly, Claudine would give her a pass, just this once. She grabbed the lid of the container, and closed it over top of Charlie so she could follow Maya to where Charlie would live, “Lead the way.”
Maya gave Claudine a small smile, seeing her warm up to the axolotl even just a little bit made her happy. Walking up the stairs together, Maya made sure that Claudine wouldn’t trip on anything and they finally made it to Charlie’s tank in the hallway. Maya must have set it up after she left for work this morning, since she definitely would have remembered seeing such a large tank when she left their room this morning. Maya had already prepared the water filter and substrate for the axolotl, so all that was left was to put Charlie in.
Claudine gave the Tupperware over to Maya and opened the top of the tank. Charlie swam at the wall of the container in curiosity as Maya picked him up and tried to coax him into hopping into the tank.
When Charlie finally felt like leaving, he hopped out of the tub and into the tank. Claudine closed the tank and dusted her hands together, “He’s a little easier to endure when he’s in his tank.” The axolotl looked at Claudine, tilting its head while doing that weird thing it did with its mouth again. “Maya, is this normal?”
“Is what normal?”
“The ‘bloop bloop’ thing it’s doing with its mouth. It kinda looks like it forgot how to breathe.”
“Oh, did I forget to mention it?” Maya watched Charlie as he opened and closed his mouth, “The co-worker said that Charlie has a genetic defect where he sometimes forgets how to exhale. He’ll remember in a moment, just give him some time.”
“I’m, sorry he forgets how to do what now?”
“Exhale.”
“What do you mean he forgot how to exhale?!”
“He’s trying his best,” at that moment, Charlie chose to remember how to exhale, turning around and swimming away with his dark, slightly opaque body disappearing behind a rock. He popped out from a hole in the rock; even after forgetting how to exhale, he was smiling all the same.
Claudine couldn’t help thinking just how much this salamander reminded her of Maya, right down to its insane ability to be inadequate at the most simple tasks. God forbid the day Maya forgets how to use her involuntary muscles. Claudine wouldn’t be able to fit her in their fridge.
“I was a little worried for a second there.”
The two of them stood there for a bit, watching the axolotl as he swam back and forth in his tank, content with his new life with them as his owners.
“Hey, Claudine.”
“Yeah?”
“Wanna hear a joke?”
“Not particularly, no.”
“What do you call a small axolotl?”
“Maya, no.” She already fell for Maya’s trick, hook, line and sinker. It was too late, the inevitable would occur and Claudine would hate Maya for it.
“An axo-little!” Maya howled at her own joke, and it seemed that Charlie appreciated it too, swimming in excited circles in the water. Claudine could’ve sworn they were on the same wavelength, even though Charlie definitely didn’t understand human speech.
Claudine groaned in response, prompting a hearty laugh from Maya, “I’m sorry, it was too good to pass up. Do you want to feed him?”
“What does he eat?”
“Worms. He eats the big bloodworms a few times everyday.”
Claudine laughed nervously, “Ah hah, would you look at the time Maya! I’d better go shower and get to sleep! Ha ha…”
Maya watched as Claudine ran for the hills.