Finding Land People, Underwater
I swam toward the coast. I knew what I had to do: I had to find land people and get them to follow me back to the barrels so they could help. It was a great plan. The only problem was, I didn’t know where to find land people. I’d come across land people underwater before, and they seemed to like to watch me swim. How would I find them now?
I swam towards a coral reef. It was full of colorful fish of all types and sizes. I just love reefs. To me, there is nothing more beautiful. “Excuse me,” I said to a angelfish.
“Yes?” she replied. She was very pretty. Her yellow color was bright against the blue background of the water.
“Hi, my name is Eartha, and I need to find land people so I can get them to clean up this mess we found along the bottom that made Clyde sick.” I didn’t realize it then, but I was speaking very fast and didn’t even stop to breathe.
“Um,” muttered the angelfish. “What?” She was definitely confused.
I stopped, took a deep breath, and tried again. “I need to find land people who swim underwater.”
“Oh,” said the angelfish, realizing what I was talking about. “You want to find divers,” she said.
I didn’t know what that meant. “What are divers?” I asked.
“Divers are land people who swim underwater,” she explained.
“Yes!” I was excited now. “That’s exactly what I need! Divers!”
“Then come with me,” she said. “I think I know where you can find some.”
Posted by Dan under From Eartha | Permalink | No Comments »We need a plan
As we approached a nearby reef, I started to notice something wrong in the water. It smelled funny. It was hard to explain, but I could definitely tell something was wrong.
“There it is,” shouted Roger. “That’s what made Clyde sick.”
Lying on the bottom of the reef were several large barrels, and some of them were leaking. I don’t know what was leaking, but I did know it wasn’t good.
“Now what do we do?” asked Paulie. “I’m not going near that stuff. I can smell it from here.”
He was right. The smell was getting stronger.
“I’m not going over there again,” said Clyde.
“We need to figure out a way to get this problem noticed by the land people,” explained Roger.
“Land people?” I asked.
“Yes,” said Roger. “We need them to see this mess and remove it.”
I knew what to do. “I think I have an idea,” I told them.
Posted by Dan under From Eartha | Permalink | No Comments »Finding the source of the sickness
I knew that Roger was upset. He rushed off ahead very quickly. Clyde, Paulie, and I had a hard time keeping up with him.
“Roger!” I shouted. “Wait!”
Roger stopped and turned around.
Swimming as fast as I could through the warm blue water, I finally caught up to him. “Where are we going?” I asked.
“I think I know what made Clyde sick,” he said. Roger was much older than I was, and he’d seen more of the ocean than I could even hope to see.
“It was the water,” explained Clyde.
“Actually,” said Roger, swimming over to Clyde. “It was something in the water.”
“What can we do?” asked Paulie. Paulie was obviously nervous, as usual.
“I don’t know. I’ll have to think of something.” Roger sped off, and we all followed him. I trust Roger. He was very nice to me when I was at the turtle hospital. I just knew he would come up with a good plan.
Posted by Dan under From Eartha | Permalink | No Comments »Paulie to the rescue
The lady octopus that Paulie had met swam down to the seaweed patch and began picking the stems of seaweed, each with three berries on them. She held two of them in each of her six tentacles.
Paulie smiled, finally realizing what she was doing. When the octopus gathered the last piece of seaweed, she swam up to Paulie and said, “Lead the way.”
“Follow me!” exclaimed Paulie, darting off in the direction where he’d left his friends. All the while he was thinking, “I did it! I did it!”
“By the way, my name is Lilly,” said the octopus.
“I’m Paulie.”
“Nice to meet you, Paulie,” she smiled, keeping up with Paulie’s speed and trying not to drop the seaweed.
She wasn’t as fast as Paulie, so it took them a little longer to get back to the sick whale.
“Roger!” shouted Paulie. “We have the seaweed!”
Roger and I turned toward Paulie and saw the octopus carrying the seaweed. “I was wondering how he’d carry it,” I said.
“Good thing Lilly was there,” replied Roger with a bellowing laugh.
“You know her?” I asked.
“Sure do.” Roger leaned over toward me. “When you’ve been around as long as I have, you get to know a lot of people.” He turned toward Clyde the whale and added, “Hang in there, big guy. The medicine is on its way.”
Clyde just smiled as best as he could. I’m sure his stomach was really hurting him.
As Lilly swam up to Roger, she wrapped all her tentacles around him and gave him a big hug. When she released him from her six-armed hug, the two of them swam over to Clyde.
Roger told Clyde, “OK, chew these in your mouth, but don’t swallow them, just squeeze out the juice of the berries.”
I saw Paulie gasp as he watched Lilly placing her tentacles inside the mouth of a whale. Clyde chewed the berries; then he spit them out.
Roger put his flipper on Clyde’s forehead and told him, “It will take a little time for the medicine to work, but you’ll be okay.”
“Will … will you all stay with me for a while?” he asked softly.
“You bet we will,” I said.
I swam over to Paulie and gave him a big hug. “You did real good, Paulie. Real good.” I could tell Paulie was very proud of himself.
“I had help,” he said, turning toward Lilly. He swam over to Lilly and gave her a hug. She wrapped her tentacle around him and hugged him back.
I was very curious about what made Clyde sick. He was so far from his home, and it seemed very strange to me. So I asked him.
Still tired and a bit weak, Clyde managed to reply, “I was swimming through the Gulf Stream current, and a day later I was feeling dizzy. I couldn’t figure out which way I was going, and then I ended up on the beach.”
“What could do that?” asked Paulie. “You know, make a big whale like you sick?”
Roger frowned. “I know what it was,” he said, and he wasn’t happy about it.
Posted by Dan under From Eartha | Permalink | No Comments »Six arms are better than none
Paulie sped off toward the seaweed patch. As he made his way over the ridge, he finally saw it: seaweed spanned as far as his eye could see. It was like a green river under the ocean.
“I did it! I found the seaweed medicine!” he shouted, doing a backflip in the process. Looking around the seaweed, he realized he had a problem. Oh no, he thought. How am I going to carry the seaweed?
Paulie looked around for something he could use to carry the seaweed back to Jolly Roger. He swam around the seaweed patch trying to find a way to carry it. He picked one piece of seaweed and put it in his mouth.
“Therth no wayth I can fith all that theaweed in my mouf,” he mumbled through a mouth full of seaweed. He spit out the seaweed. I can make several trips, he thought. He looked back and forth between where the seaweed was and the direction his friends were. No, that won’t work. Roger said I needed to hurry. I don’t have time for twelve trips. Paulie began to panic, swimming in circles.
“What’s wrong, little one?” said a nearby voice.
Paulie turned to see a large female octopus hovering nearby. His first reaction was to be scared, but then he remembered he was scared of Roger too at first, and Roger had turned out to be a friend. “I … I … I need to, um, there’s a whale, and … um … I have to get the …” Paulie was nervous and panicking.
“Slow down, little one. Start at the beginning,” she said.
Paulie took a deep breath and started rambling. “Eartha, Alex and I were swimming, and we saw this cave. Then the rock fell and trapped us. Then we saw a monster, but it wasn’t a monster; it was a sea turtle that Eartha knew. And then we went to go see the sea turtle eggs, and Alex left ’cause he missed his family, and we saw the whale, and the whale is sick, and Jolly Roger told me to find the seaweed with the three berries, and here is the seaweed, but I can’t carry more than one at a time, and if I don’t make it back in time, I don’t know what will happen to the whale, and, hey, I just bit my tongue.” He did it all in one breath, so when he was done, he let out a long exhale.
The lady octopus blinked her eyes. “Did you say Jolly Roger?” she asked.
“Yes,” said Paulie, his eyes bright. “Do you know him?”
“Yes. He is a friend of mine.” She looked down at the seaweed patch, and said “Hmmm.”
Posted by Dan under From Eartha | Permalink | No Comments »Finding the medicine
Paulie swam as fast as he could, trying to locate the seaweed patch that Jolly Roger told him about. “I gotta find the seaweed patch. Seaweed … seaweed,” he mumbled to himself.
He wasn’t watching where he was going when he bumped into a large grouper fish. The impact made him bounce right off the big fish like he were jumping on a trampoline.
“Hey,” bellowed the grouper. “Watch where you’re going, little man!” He pointed at Paulie with his fin.
Paulie backed away. “I’m sorry,” he replied, his voice shaking from nervousness.
“Where were you heading in such a rush?” asked the big fish in a menacing tone.
“I … I …” stuttered Paulie. He took a deep breath, and then he said, “I need to find some special seaweed for a friend. He’s sick. I’m sorry I bumped into you, but I am in a real hurry.”
“Heh, heh, heh,” laughed the large fish. “I like you, little man. You’ve got spirit.” His voice was deep and powerful. “This seaweed you need—what does it look like?”
“It’s got clusters of three berries on it. I need to find at least twelve pieces. I was told it was somewhere in this direction.”
“Oh. Yes, I’ve seen that seaweed patch.” The grouper pointed toward a ridge in the distance that had a large piece of fan coral at its peak. “It’s on the other side of that ridge.”
Paulie smiled. “Thank you! Thank you so much.” He took off in the direction of the ridge at top speed, determined to complete his mission.
“Good luck, little man.” shouted the grouper as he watched the little fish dart away.
Posted by Dan under From Eartha | Permalink | No Comments »Helping a sick whale
After finding a sick whale that had been pushed back into the water after being beached, Roger and I escorted it back to the area where we’d left Paulie and Alex. Whales usually prey on smaller fish, so you can imagine how Paulie felt when he saw this. We were bringing a potential predator right to him!
“Aaaaaaaaaaaah!” screamed Paulie.
“Not so loud,” said the whale.
“I’m sorry,” whispered Paulie. “Don’t eat me. I’m Paulie. I’m your friend. Do you understand me, friend? Paulie is your friend!” Paulie was panicking.
“Relax, Paulie. He’s hurt and needs our help,” I said.
“Is he gonna eat us? If he gets better, is he gonna eat us then?” whispered Paulie.
“No,” said Roger.
I looked over at Alex and saw he was still watching a family of stingray swimming and playing nearby. I knew something had been bothering him for some time, but he hadn’t decided to share it with me. As his friend, I felt it was my duty to see if I could help him. I swam over to Alex.
“What’s wrong, Alex?” I asked.
Alex looked sad. “I miss my family,” he said.
I placed my flipper on my friend’s back. “If you want to return to your family, I totally understand.”
Alex looked up at me, “I know I said I’d go on this adventure with you, but I really do miss my family.” He looked down toward the sand. “I hope you’re not upset with me.”
I lifted his face with my flipper so he could look at me. “Alex, you are my friend. If you need to go, you go. We will always be friends.” I smiled at him. “Who knows, ” I said. “Maybe we will see each other again someday.”
Alex smiled, and I gave him a hug. He then swam over to Paulie.
“Paulie, I’m leaving,” he said.
Paulie was upset. “Was it something I said? Is it something I did? Whatever it is, I won’t do it again. Unless it’s something I didn’t do, then I’ll make sure I don’t not do it again.”
Alex hugged Paulie. “It was not something you did or didn’t do. I just really want to be with my family.” Paulie hugged him back. “I’ll miss you,” said Alex.
Alex nodded at Roger, and Roger nodded back, knowing that Alex was grateful for his hospitality.
Alex swam off toward the coral reef. It made me sad to see him go, but I knew he was doing what he felt was best.
I then turned my attention to the whale and to Roger.
I asked Roger quietly, “Do you know what is wrong with him?”
“Yes,” he replied. “Clyde is suffering from a common illness that comes from polluted waters.”
“Clyde?” I asked, not realizing that was the whale’s name.
“Yes, his name is Clyde.” Roger turned to Paulie. “Paulie, I need your help.”
“Me?” asked Paulie. “What can I do?”
“You can swim fast, can’t you?”
“Yes!” shouted Paulie. He knew he could swim fast—very fast. After all, he outran two barracudas. “Yes, I can!”
“Okay, I need you to find some seaweed. It’s special seaweed that can help cure Clyde.”
“Who’s Clyde?” asked Paulie.
“Right over here,” shouted Clyde, as loud as he could, waving his fin at Paulie.
“The seaweed we need has clusters of three berries, and it grows about five feet tall,” explained Roger. “If you head in that direction, you should come across a field of it. I need you to bring me at least twelve pieces of seaweed that have those berries. Can you do that?”
“Yes, I can.” replied Paulie, saluting Roger.
“Oooohh!” moaned Clyde.
Paulie turned to leave, and Roger stopped him. “Paulie?”
“Yes?”
“Hurry!”
Posted by Dan under From Eartha | Permalink | No Comments »Heading ashore
Jolly Roger, Alex, Paulie and I headed to the beach. We exited Roger’s cave through an opening on top of the cave, which was a secret entrance only Roger knew about. As we swam toward the shoreline, I noticed Alex was watching a small family of stingray swimming nearby. He didn’t say anything, but I got the feeling he was missing his family.
Roger really knew his way around this area of the ocean. I guess with age comes wisdom! He pointed out some very tasty seaweed patches. I’ll spend my whole life learning from him!
As we approached the shoreline, Roger told Alex and Paulie where it was safe for them to stay. From their position, they could see the sea turtles approaching the shore to create their nests.
I poked my head out of the water and saw something odd. “Roger,” I called out. “Something’s going on.”
Roger poked his head out of the water and saw the same thing I did: Some big fish was on the beach. It was lying there and people were pouring water on it. Others were digging a trench in the sand in front of the big fish.
“Oh my,” said Roger. “It’s a whale, and it’s stuck on the beach.”
“What can we do?” I asked.
“Well, I think we should wait and see if they can get it back into the water. If so, we will see if we can help it.”
We watched as the people did their best to get the whale back into the water. Slowly, the whale was pushed along the trench, now being flooded with water to make it easier for it to move. Unlike sea turtles, whales don’t have flippers to help them down the beach.
As soon as the whale entered the water, Roger and I moved in.
“Are you all right?” asked Roger.
“Oh,” said the whale. “My head hurts, and my stomach hurts.” It looked around. “I’m not really sure which way I’m going.”
“Can you swim?” I asked.
“Yes,” the whale replied.
“Come with us. We will help you.” said Roger.
Posted by Dan under From Eartha | Permalink | No Comments »Roger’s cave
Paulie swam up to Roger’s sleeping area, flopped down onto a bed of seaweed, and bounced a few times. Alex and I just watched him.
“What?” Paulie asked, looking at us. “He said his home is our home.” Paulie continued to bounce on the seaweed patch.
Roger’s cave was full of things he had found over the years. There were some drinking cups, shiny coins, and even some candle holders.
“I found most of these items in sunken ships,” explained Roger.
“You went inside them?” asked Paulie, still bouncing on Roger’s bed.
“Sure, I did.”
“Wow!” said Paulie.
Paulie looked at a wall. It had some scratches on it as if something were being counted. “What’s this?” he asked.
“That’s my calendar,” replied Roger. “Tonight is the full moon.” He turned to me and asked, “Do you and your friends want to join me on shore to watch the nesting?”
I wasn’t sure what he was talking about. “Nesting?” I asked.
“This is the time when female sea turtles go ashore to lay their eggs,” he explained.
“Sure!” I replied. I had never seen nesting before, and I’m still too young to do it myself.
“Um.” We were interrupted by Alex. “Paulie and I can’t go ashore—you know, ’cause I’m a stingray and he’s a fish.”
“You can still come and stay offshore in the water,” I told him.
Paulie, still bouncing on the bed, stopped mid-bounce. “When do we leave?”
Posted by Dan under From Eartha | Permalink | No Comments »Making friends
My friends and I were relieved to know that the cave monster was not a monster at all, but it was my friend Jolly Roger! Roger and I had met at the marinelife center where I was cared for when I got tangled in fishing line. Roger led us into the wide open cavern that he called his home, and inside, it was amazing! There were large columns in the corners, and it was filled with lot of shiny things.
“Are you sure he’s not going to eat us?” whispered Paulie. He still wasn’t sure that Roger wasn’t a monster. Roger was an adult loggerhead turtle, so he was very large. His shell was scratched and scarred from years of ocean adventures.
“He’s not a monster,” I told Paulie. “He’s my friend. I’m sure he’ll be your friend too.”
“Great plan,” said Paulie. “If we make him believe that I’m his friend, then he won’t eat me.” Paulie looked around. “I need to find a housewarming gift.”
Roger swam over to Paulie, who was looking around the cave for something to give to him. “I’m not going to eat you, Paulie,” Roger said.
Paulie stuttered in fear, “B..b..b..because I’m your friend. Right?”
Roger laughed. “Yes, Paulie. Any friend of Eartha’s is a friend of mine.”
Alex swam up to Roger, “I’m Alex. It’s nice to meet you Roger.”
“Nice to meet you, too, Alex.”
Paulie swam in front of Alex. “I’m Paulie.”
Roger laughed, “Yes, I know.”
Roger stretched his flippers wide. “Eartha, Alex, Paulie, welcome! My home is your home.”
Posted by Dan under From Eartha | Permalink | No Comments »