Mycroft Holmes was a lonely, aging man, with a bitter heart and a stern face. One day, his brother Sherlock came to him with a plastic bag filled with water. Inside the plastic bag filled with water was the smallest black-scaled goldfish Mycroft had ever seen.
"I thought that you would like a companion," Sherlock said. Mycroft accepted the fish, and placed it in a bowl of water in his home. He did not like the fish, but now that it was his he might as well keep it.
Mycroft fed the goldfish flakes every day. Little by the little, the fish grew and grew. It was no longer the size of a pea as it had once been. Now, the little goldfish was the size of a large coyfish, and was too big for its water bowl. Now it needed bigger food to fill its bigger tummy. Mycroft began feeding the goldfish smaller fish.
One day, Mycroft returned home to find that his goldfish missing from its bowl.
"Where has my fish gone?" Mycroft asked himself. He was worried, for a goldfish could not survive long in the open air. To Mycroft's surprise, he found a black mouse scurrying about the kitchen.
"Oh! Hello," Mycroft said to the mouse. "Where did you come from?"
The mouse climbed upon Mycroft's hand, and he held him up to his eyes.
"I think I shall name you Greg," he said.
Mycroft fed Greg the Mouse pellets and salt wheels, and the mouse grew and grew until he was too large for his wire cage. Mycroft placed Greg into a cardboard box for the night, and promised that tomorrow he would have a bigger cage. But when Mycroft awoke the next morning, Greg the mouse was gone from his box.
In place of Greg the mouse, there lay a black and ginger cat, curled into a ball. Mycroft smiled a little, and cradled the cat in his arms.
"Is that you, Greg? You've grown," said he. Mycroft and Greg the Cat enjoyed many months together. Greg the cat was warm, and playful, and Mycroft had grown to like him very much. And in turn, Greg the Cat had grown very fat from lapping up cream and eating tuna.
Unexpectedly one evening, Mycroft returned home to find no sign of Greg the cat. He looked all around the house for Greg, and finally found a large dog with black markings digging through the rubbish bin in the kitchen. He wore an orange collar with a name tag that read "Greg."
"Look at you!" Mycroft said. "You shall eat my entire house!"
Mycroft devoted much of his time to caring for Greg the Dog. They played fetch together, went on long walks together, and Mycroft brushed Greg's coat every day. Greg was a loyal friend to Mycroft for years and years. Mycroft was getting old, and so was Greg. They fell asleep on the couch together, Mycroft's arms wrapped tightly around Greg the Dog's neck.
When he awoke the next morning, to his surprise, Mycroft was hugging the shoulders of a gray-haired man with a black jacket.
"What happened to you, Greg?" Mycroft asked, unable to believe his eyes.
Greg the Man looked up at Mycroft and smiled.
"I grew," he said. "The more you cared for me, the more I grew. I turned into whatever you needed. I was a fish and a mouse first, because you needed something other than yourself to care for. And then I was a cat, who is a fair-weather friend. But you loved me more and more and then just a friend wasn't enough, so I turned into a dog, the most loyal of creatures."
"And now you are a man," Mycroft said. "What does that mean I need?"
"That you need someone to have, to hold, and to love," Greg said. "You need me."
"I do," Mycroft said, embracing Greg once more. And now, Greg the man could embrace Mycroft in return, and he did just that.