May I be a fish, please

Saw a fish while reading a story. Strange creatures! But can empathy for disenfranchised grief be rather humorous, too?

"A few moments passed. The woman’s mouth opened and closed over the empty air. The waiter came by again, and I plucked a canapé from a round tray. Open, closed, open, closed, like she was gulping air. 'Oh,' she finally said before rushing off to the washroom or something. I didn’t see her again. I still don’t know who she was or why she responded the way she did. Her chair remained empty all night, and whenever I looked at it, I wanted to laugh. It was funny, really: a literal instantiation of my isolation."

~ A. Kimball

https://thewalrus.ca/the-loneliness-of-infertility/