Moobaloo Saves the Telescope

One day Moobaloo the mermaid was swimming through the ocean. Now, a mermaid isn't quite like a person. Mermaids have the same face, and the same torso, but instead of legs a mermaid has the tail of a fish.

On this particular day Moobaloo was looking up through the water and she saw a huge shadow on the water's surface. She wondered what it was so she swam towards it.

As she got close she could see it was a great big ship, a three masted schooner. That is a kind of boat with really big sails, and three masts all sticking up from its decks. She saw the silhouette of a man standing by the railing, holding something long and shiny.

Moobaloo swam under the water and popped up right below the man. "Hello!" she said.

The man was startled. He dropped the long, shiny thing right into the water.

He said, "You surprised me!"

Moobaloo asked, "Who are you, and what are you doing?"

The man responded, "I am a pirate captain, and I was using my telescope to look far away."

Now, a telescope is a special kind of long tube. When you hold it up to your eye you can see really far away. The capatain was using it to look for other ships.

Moobaloo said, "I didn't mean to surprise you."

The captain said, "Well, you did, and now I've dropped my telescope! It was my favorite telescope, made of brass, given to me by my father."

"Don't worry," said Moobaloo, "I will get it back for you."

She dove under the water and started swimming down. As she swam, deeper and deeper, the sunlight started to change. Pretty soon she lost the color red. Then she couldn't see the color orange any more. The deeper she went, the more colors were absorbed by the water above.

Just as she was startting to lose the color yellow she saw her good friend Horace the fish.

"Hi Moobaloo!" said Horace, "What are you doing?"

"I made a pirate captain drop his telescope. It is sinking to the bottom of the ocean and I have promised to get it back." she said.

"But Moobaloo," said Horace, "its is very deep here. This is one of the deepest parts of the ocean! Are you sure?"

"Yes. I promised." she said.

"Well then, I will come and help you get it." said Horace.

So Horace and Moobaloo started swimming down together. Pretty soon the color green was gone, and the water was getting colder and colder.

Soon they came to a huge squid, who said "Surface swimmers, what are you doing down here in the depths of the ocean?"

"Have you seen a telescope fall past?" asked Horace, who knew Squid Language.

"Yes," said the squid, "but you are very late. The telescope was going very fast, and it passed here a few minutes ago."

"Thank you," said Horace, and they started swimming down again.

When they finally lost the color blue there was no more sunlight left. It was completely dark.

"We will never find the telescope in the dark!" said Moobaloo.

Just then Horace said, "I think I see a light."

Sure enough, a little light came bobbing towards them through the water. At first it looked like a little star all alone, but pretty soon they saw that it was attached to a fish called an Angler Fish. It stuck up out of its noggin on a long stalk. The Angler Fish had lots of strange pointy teeth in its mouth, like this (point all your fingers and weave your hands together) and looked a little scary.

"Surface Swimmers, what are you doing here in the depths of the ocean?" asked the fish.

Moobaloo said, "We are looking for a telescope that fell to the bottom. But it is too dark for us to see, and we may never find it now."

"Let me help you with my light," said the fish.

And so the three companions began to swim even deeper. The water got colder, and the pressure started to increase. (grab you child's calf in your hand, and squeeze very lightly) At the top of the sea the pressure is very gentle. But when you go deep, you get more and more pressure, like this: (show increasing pressure on the calf with your hand. Don't overdo it)

The Angler Fish lead the way with the little light bobbing on the end of its stalk.

Then they got to the bottom. There they saw the huge white bones of a whale sticking up from the bottom of the sea. When whales die their bones fall to the depths. The telescope had fallen in the middle of the bones.

Moobaloo swam towards it, but Horace said, "Moobaloo stop! Look at those long worms with all the teeth."

Parts of the whale were still on the bones, and large worms with a ring of teeth on one end gnawed away at the meat. The worms were blind, and if Moobaloo swam past they would not know her from the whale meat, and might eat her.

"How will we get the telescope?" asked Moobaloo.

At that moment they saw more lights coming towards them. These lights were arranges like the spokes of a wheel, and they strobed from the center outward. It was a big jellyfish.

"Surface swimmers," said the jellyfish, "what are you doing here in the depths?"

"We are trying to get that telescope," said Moobaloo, "but we can not get near because of the worms."

"I will get it for you," said the jellyfish. "Those worms eat meat, but I am not made if meat. I am made of jelly."

And so the jellyfish swam between the whale bones, and used her long tentacles to grab the telescope and bring it to Moobaloo.

"Thank you for helping us!" said Moobaloo. "We are going to swim up now. Would you like to come with us?"

"Certainly!" said the jellyfish.

So the four companions, Moobaloo, Horace, the Anglerfish and the Jellyfish all swam up together. But while it was still very dark and very cold the jellyfish said, "This is as high as I can go." and they said goodbye.

Up they swam and just as the the first hints of light appeared the Anglerfish said, "This is as high as I can go." and the said goodbye.

Then Horace and Moobaloo swam up towards the surface. The water felt warm compared to the freezing depths. The pressure was less, and as they swam up they started to see colors again - first blue, then green, then yellow, orange and red.

The popped up beside the pirate ship and threw the telescope up to the captain.

"Thank you!" he said.

And that is how Moobaloo met the pirate captain.

The End
(c) 2007 Ken Demarest