Creative Month of January: Blog 4- Letters from Mom & Mimi

Dear Ellie,

You have now had two weeks into your gymnastics class and you adore it!  You are quite limber and flexible but you also love to jump and spin fearlessly so really you are the perfect recipe for a gymnast!  Graceful you are not but we love watching you become such a social child who is happy, having fun, and taking some risks.

With all of your new activities, you sleep soundly at night so our latest bedtime story could not come at a more perfect time!

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 4

“Keep up Lion!” Ellie breathed as she drifted towards the patch of swaying seaweed.  “Flap those flippers of yours a little faster!  Otherwise our new suspect might dart away before we get the chance to question her!”

“Ok, Ok El!  Geez… I am trying you know.  It’s just that sometimes I get so fascinated watching the bubbles escape from my breathing apparatus, that I forget to kick my feet!  There sure is a lot of things to remember Ellie when it comes to living under the water,” Lion countered.

“I know Lion.  Just keep up,” she shot back with a little more patience this time.

Lion gave Ellie a thumb up, but he still couldn’t help but continue to watch his own bubbles and it made him giggle.  If he breathed fast, the bubbles gushed out of the tube one after another, and if he breathed slow only a handful of bubbles trickled out and then there wouldn’t be any more in what seemed like forever. 

And in those few minutes that Lion was distracted, the new suspect flitted further into the lush green seaweed, which hid her completely from their view.  “Great,” Ellie grumbled.  “I guess we will just have to see if we can track her down later,” she tried justifying to herself.

But luckily for Lions distraction, his forgetting to flap his flippers had him floating backwards and believe it or not, straight towards the edge of the seaweed patch.  As soon as his legs touched the slimy green stalks Lion let out a scream.   And in his confusion as to which direction to hightail it out of there, he swam right into a colorful fish that was gliding out of the protective cover.

“Hey there Mister, watch where you are going!” glubbed a very pretty rainbow fish.  Then realizing that Lion could be a predator, she darted back into hiding.  After waiting a few moments and realizing that “it” wasn’t coming after her, she decided that maybe there was no threat.  So she darted back out and swam a dozen circles around Lion making him quite dizzy.  “You know Mister, all my aquatic friends are excellent swimmers, and, and, and, they have scales not fur… and, and, and, they have fins not hands or feet… but, but, but, you aren’t… wellllllllll… exactly what kind of sea creature are you?” she questioned cautiously.

Just then Ellie swam up and hovered in between the two.  “Excuse me miss,” she began, “My name is Ellie and this here sea creature (she pointed her finger right at her furry friend) is not a sea creature at all but rather my stuffed animal.  His name is Lion.”

“Is he a real Lion?” she asked in awe.

Ellie giggled, “Welllllllllll, he is not ferocious if that is what you are wondering.  He’s more like a kitty cat as his growl is just like a purr.”  And Ellie winked at Lion, her heart filled with love.

“Ahhhhhhhh… a lion who poses as a kitty cat!  I like that!  Well, it is very nice to meet you both.  My name is Rita.  Did you know that I am a Rainbow fish and MY biggest dream is to pose as a Pirate fish?” she gushed. 

Ellie and Lion looked at each other with wide eyes.  And very quietly Ellie reached into her pocket to fish out the notepad and pen.  She began scribbling down every word that bubbled out of Rita’s mouth. 

“Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, just once I would love to be feared by all who live in this tank.  Wouldn’t it be magnificent if the next exhibits headline starred my name ‘Rainbow Rita’ followed by ‘The Greatest Sea Pirate To Rule The Aquarium?’… Mmmmmmmmmmm yes now that would be lovely,” she sighed a bit too dreamily.

“Humph,” sighed Lion.  “Honestly Rita, if you want to sound tough and scary like a pirate then don’t put ‘Rainbow’ in front of your name.  It sounds too frilly.  You need a name like ‘Raging Rita’ or ‘Radical Rita’ or how about ‘Rotten Rita’? Lion rattled off.

“Lion, what are you doing?” whispered a worried Ellie.

“Why I am trying to help Rita find ways to change her name into something much mightier, something that sounds like a fearsome pirate,” responded Lion, “I would think you would want to help too Ellie.”

“Ahhhhhh, did you forget why we are here Lion?  You do know that you are tampering with a possible suspect!” she shot back with a hint of annoyance.

Lion sheepishly answered, “OH! OH MY!  Sorry Ellie.  I guess I got caught up in… ”

“Her trap!” accused Ellie.

“Wait a minute!  WHAT?  Are you saying that I am a suspect?  A suspect to what might I ask?” Rita mouthed.

“Why to the disappearance of the Aquarium’s Treasure Chest Exhibit.  We are trying to figure out who stole it,” Ellie answered her while pointing a forefinger towards the spot where the chest originally sat.

“Well I didn’t take it!” Rita panicked.  “What would make you think that I did?”

And before Rita could finish her sentence Ellie reached into another one of her many pockets and pulled out a giant magnifying glass.

“Welllllllllllllllllllll for starters, how about that sparkly necklace you have hanging around your neck?” Ellie stated while practically setting the lens right on top of the baubles.  “Looks to me like it was freshly made with the treasures emeralds, rubies and diamonds.

Rita looked down.  “Uh-oh. No, No, No, No… you’ve got it all wrong.  You see Ellie and Lion, when the workers brought the Pirates Chest into the tank; I thought it would be fun to host a ‘Make Your Own Jewelry’ party.  So I sent out flyers to all the fish stating that my party would start immediately after closing time last night.  And can you believe… everyone showed up!  Oh what fun we had stringing our favorite colored stones on freshly cut seaweed strands!  Well, the party was still going on around 2:00 am and I knew if we didn’t call it quits immediately we were sure to get into some trouble.  So with the help of Sammy the shark, we had everyone return their jeweled accessories back to the chest pronto.  I guess in all the rush I forgot to dismantle my own fashion creation.  Sorry!”

Ellie pouted, “Oh brother.  I guess that puts us back to square one Lion.  Rita is not a suspect after all.”

Lion pouted too, “Oh sister!  What is our next move then Ellie?”

After giggling at Lions response Ellie asked Rita.  “Rita, do you have any ideas who may have walked off with the Pirates Treasure Chest?”

“As a matter of fact I do!” she stated with great certainty, “While Sammy was swimming from one fish to another and helping each of them undo their homemade necklaces and bracelets, I did notice a suspicious looking shadow disappear inside the shipwreck prop which is temporarily on loan to our Aquarium.”

“An interesting fact Rita.  Thanks!” Ellie said aloud while jotting this new information into her notepad.  And then she turned to Lion.  “Lion, are you courageous enough to take a swim inside that ship?”

“I, I, I, I, I guess so,” he stuttered, not really sure at all.

So over to the wreck they swam.  Lion’s air apparatus was releasing bubbles nonstop because he was scared silly while Ellie’s air apparatus was very, very still.  She was determined to nab this new suspect!...

Until next week my little Bean!

Love Mimi