Dear Ellie,
Well my dear, life is mundane this week (which after the
busy holidays is a welcome change).
You continue to love preschool (even greeting your teacher with a hug
each morning) and the library.
But still, it is
the depth of your imagination that never ceases to amaze me. Just a few days ago, you pretended the
whole house was Disney World and each room held a different ride. Dumbo was in the living room, the new
Ariel ride was in the entryway, Winnie the Pooh was upstairs in the guest
room…). You have such an incredible
memory (even recalling the tunnel in the People Mover ride, which you closed
your eyes tightly because you were scared) as you experienced these attractions
all over again. You also pretended
to be Snow White and would call your Dad, Mimi, and Poppy, and I over to you as
it was our turn in line to meet the princess and get our picture taken. I feel like life with you is a fairy
tale Ellie so it’s fitting that we are writing to you another piece of fiction!
And now here is our final story (with many chapters to
write!) for you.
So as for our weekly guidelines: I write a piece one week in
regular font, and then your Mimi will write a piece in italics the next
week. The only things your Mimi
and I agreed on were the characters- Ellie and a magic teapot and the setting
(an aquarium). Anything else is
fair game and will make our adventure a new tale. We also need to figure out an illustration to go with our
part. Our goal Ellie is to have a
beloved bedtime story for you and future generations. And so we will continue our fourth piece of fiction.
Ellie and the Magic
Teapot: Off to the Aquarium- Part 3
As they used their fins to propel toward the brain coral,
Ellie and Lion realized they could swim almost as well as the other fish in the
tank. Ellie was a little faster
than Lion and she looked back to make sure he was following. He smiled and waved to her as he kicked
to catch up. As Ellie winked and
turned her head forward again, she screamed into her mouthpiece (that not only
functioned as an airway but also as a means to talk underwater).
She had almost glided directly into the scariest fish she
had ever seen with bulging eyes and a long snout. Ellie’s screech startled the fish too, which caused him to
puff up several times his size and look like a giant bubble with spines jutting
out of his skin. The fish actually
looked like a swimming porcupine.
Ellie stuck out her arms to slow her pace but it didn’t stop
her from running into the puffer fish.
The tip of her nose touched one of the jagged edges of a quill on the puffer
fish’s face.
“Ouch,” Ellie shrieked with tears coming to her eyes. She instinctively began to rub her nose
as the puffer fish said, “I’m really sorry! Anytime I get scared I blow up really big so that predators
can’t eat me.”
Ellie forgot about her sore nose as she became curious about
the puffer fish, “How do you expand like that?” she asked inquisitively.
“I have a very elastic stomach so when I suck in lots and
lots of water, I get really big really fast,” the puffer fish said proudly
doing it all over again.
Ellie laughed because he reminded her of a balloon and she
loved balloons! “My name is Ellie
and this is my friend Lion,” she gestured to her furry friend.
As the puffer fish started to shrink back down to normal
size, he replied, “I’m Perseus the Puffer Fish.”
“That’s a cool name!” Lion exclaimed.
“Thanks! It
means destroyer, which is kind of funny because I don’t destroy anything
(expect maybe your nose by accident Ellie),” he said gesturing to the small red
cut on her face sheepishly, “I just know how to scare people but it’s all an
illusion.”
“What’s an illusion?” Lion asked curiously.
“’An illusion is a misleading image meaning what you see
isn’t really what is there,” Ellie answered smartly.
“I like my name though, ”continued Perseus proudly, “because
my favorite letter is P and it works out pleasantly enough because not only am
I a Puffer fish but I am also pale purple in color!”
Lion and Ellie giggled, “That is very neat Perseus!”
“It would be more perfect though if I weren’t a fish,”
Perseus said, “I wish I were something that began with a P.”
“Like what?” Lion inquired not fully understanding what he
meant.
“Like a Pirate!
Wouldn’t that be great?! My
name would be Perseus the Puffer Pirate!” he said as he imagined himself
puffing up with an eye patch and sword.
Ellie gasped and she looked at Lion as they each remembered the
stolen treasure chest.
Ellie unzipped the small pocket on the left side of her
ruffled pink bathing suit and pulled out a waterproof notepad and a red
waterproof marker. She flipped a
few pages (past her doodles of princesses and castles) to find a blank place
where she began to write some notes.
“What are you doing?” asked Perseus the Puffer Fish who
wanted to be Perseus the Puffer Pirate.
“Well you see Perseus, someone took the pirate’s treasure
chest,” she motioned across the tank to the crime scene tape that marked the
big X where it once stood.
“You don’t think I could actually steal something like that
do you?” Perseus said fearfully and just like before when he became scared, he
puffed out into a gigantic spiked ball.
“We’re not accusing anyone,” Ellie said, “but we will leave
no stone unturned.”
Lion looked at her confused.
“That means we will search in all possible places,” Ellie
clarified.
“Even though I would love to be a pirate, I would have no
way of moving a treasure. See;
look at my small pectoral fins.
They could never lift something that heavy!” Perseus tried to explain.
Ellie jotted that down in her notebook with a diagram.
“Besides,” Perseus encouraged, “I think you’re looking at
the wrong fish.” He gestured over
to the seaweed protruding out to their left.
What Ellie and Lion saw sparked their curiosity and made
them both very suspicious… it looked like a new suspect was going to be on
their list…
Love you Ellie Bean!
Love,
Mom
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