It is said that there is a valley in China where the poppy fish once lived. Whether he lives there still is a matter of whether you believe this old woman or that one, this mother’s story to her children or her neighbor’s, this man’s tall tale or his companion’s at the tea house where they are drinking. It is a matter of belief, which is as it should be. The poppy fish only appears to those who believe.

It has been centuries since the poppy fish appeared to anyone – or days – or months – or never at all. All stories agree on one point, however. The poppy fish is white, with a pattern like red poppies scattered all over his back. From there, the tales are as varied as the winds.

The Princess

One tale says that the first person to ever see the poppy fish was a princess, who spent the day sitting in the grass near the lake with her ladies. The princess had been talking all the day long of how she wanted so badly to be able to swim in the ocean, but no one would teach her, for princesses do not swim.

The poppy fish came to her, poking his head out of the pond just a stone’s throw from where the princess was sitting. He said nothing at all, but spat onto the grass a lovely necklace made of simple glass, with the shapes of waves imprinted upon it, and a single poppy flower floating among them.

The princess swore forever after that when she wore the necklace, she felt so much a part of the water that she hardly needed to swim at all, only to melt into the next wave and the next as it carried her out to sea. She was never lost, and she once saved a ship from sinking. But that is another story, and nothing to do with the poppy fish.

The Old Man

Another tale says the first person to receive a gift from the poppy fish was an old man, leaning hard against a tree that bent out over the water. His dear wife was dying, and he had come to be alone for a little while and mourn where she could not see him. “I wish,” he said, “that I could have given her a ring for our wedding day, the way the emperor does when he takes a wife.”

For you see, the old man was poor, and no one in their village had money to spare for such an extravagance as a ring for a wedding. It was an idle wish by a poor old man, but he meant it. His wife was as worthy as any empress to him. 

The old man never saw the poppy fish as he sidled up to him. His eyesight was poor and he only just saw the light catch off the golden ring as it lay there in the grass. He took it home to his wife, and for the first time in many months, she smiled and held his hand without pain. She died a week later, and the old man followed her, and when their son married another girl from the village, though both of them were as poor as the old man and his wife had been, the girl was married with a golden ring carved with poppies.

Others

The poppy fish appeared to many, old and young, rich and poor, after that, always giving them what they needed, more than what they asked for. They came and planted a poppy flower for him, and made their wishes, and waited.

He always gave jewelry of a sort, necklaces and tokens and rings and pendants, from materials both simple and fine. It was useless to summon the poppy fish for gain; he always knew. Many a man had gone seeking wealth and brought home only a cheap glass bauble that still, somehow, brought him happiness.

No one knows whether the story is true. What is certain is that the valley where the poppy fish is said to live, there is a small lake. And around that lake, thick as a carpet, are the poppies of people who have come and believed.