Till Koi Do Us Part

By Elesa Hagberg

Beulah just wants a perfect wedding. The koi have other plans.

A short story about love, koi, and magic gone wrong.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Splinter Press
• Release date: Oct 20, 2023
• ISBN: 9781960108081

Book preview

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TILL

koi

DO US

PART

a short story

ELESA HAGBERG

Splinter Press

Till koi Do Us Part

© 2023 Elesa Hagberg

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, private locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Typesetting by Faralee Pozo

Cover art by Midjourney

Cover design by Elesa Hagberg

Published by:

Splinter Press,

Spanish Fork, Utah

splinterpress.com

ISBN-13:

TILL

koi

DO US

PART

When I’d pictured my perfect wedding day, dead fish hadn’t been part of the plan.

Daddy and I had spent all summer cleaning and fixing up the backyard to turn it into a respectable wedding location. We moved all the campers to Uncle Mike’s, cleared out the trash heap, and pruned and clipped every remaining inch of the yard. It was nearly perfect. And then I’d spent just about the last of our wedding budget on seven small but beautiful koi, who’d been swimming happily around the pond last night, but were now bobbing belly-up in the morning sun.

I’ll go find a net, Daddy said, after we’d stared glumly at them for a solid five minutes.

No! I grabbed his arm. I spent good money on those koi. We can’t just throw them away. I’ll go call the pet store. Maybe they have some sort of guarantee.

They didn’t. The customer service rep’s apology was long-winded and repetitive, and I hung up before he finished. But I wasn’t ready to give up, so I made Daddy leave them there, even though the cats kept trying to catch them as they floated by.

It was Doreen who gave me the