The Magical Pool

For my goddaughter Lara.

A beautiful ray of sunshine.

It was very early in the morning and Otto the Octopus was still sound asleep in his pool of colourful balls. Suddenly, there was a huge splash and a green ball came propelling through the air and hit him on his head.

'Ouch!' Otto cried out, startled. 'What was that?' he said, looking around. He was very confused and angry. Nobody likes being woken up like that.

Otto sees something popping out of the rainbow coloured waves, gasping for air and crying for help ('Help!  Help!). Then there is nothing. No, there it is again!

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'What on earth is that?' Otto the Octopus is very curious now, so he wades across the pool towards where all the commotion is going on.

He gets there at just the right time to grab hold of the struggling creature with two of his long arms.

'Whoah! Calm down. You can't drown in this pool because there's no water. Look, it's magic!'

Before saying anything, the creature stops kicking his legs and waving his arms around and then looks around him.

'Oh! I thought I was deep trouble this time.' he said, looking straight into the octopus's eyes. 'Thank you. You've saved my life.'

'You're welcome. I'm Otto the Octopus and this is my pool...Well, it's Baby Lara's pool, but I live here. Who are you? And why are you here in your pyjamas?'

'I'm Koby.' said the Koala Bear, blushing. 'I sometimes sleep walk when I'm asleep and then I find myself in very strange places.'

'Well, you were very lucky this time. Baby Lara is a wonderful friend and this is a fantastic place to be.' said Otto.

Otto dove under the balls of colour and jumped up again.

'Come, I'll help you to the edge, then I'll go get you a lifebuoy, so we can talk some more.'

It wasn't long till Otto came back with a beautiful pink buoy and the two new friends spent the rest of the day talking and playing in the magical kaleidoscope pool of balls.

© Paula do Amaral