Category: Fiction

The seal with the orange hat. [Part 3]

“Oh Wow! Look at that!” she said to herself, “it comes off”.

She was so excited she did a double twizzle roly-poly somersault.

She made such a big wave, the canoe wobbled and the orange hat fell into the sea.

When Solva stopped spinning and looked again, the man was peering into the water.

Solva looked too and could see the orange hat sinking down, down to the bottom of the sea.

Bad luck for the man.

Good luck for Solva.

The hat went deeper and deeper out of reach.

The man had to paddle away with the others.

Solva dived down, found the hat and quickly put it on.

It fitted, but she couldn’t do it up

She did a little test by bumping into a rock and “Yippee!”

It worked, but the hat fell off.

She put it back on, but the flappy strappy bits annoyed her.

Then it fell off, again.

What was she to do?

It sank to the bottom again.

Solva swam down.

This time she picked up the strappy bits in her mouth and put it on.

She tried a couple of double roly-poly somersaults to test it out.

It stayed on.

She felt like the most clever seal that ever there was.

A seal with an orange hat; fancy that?

She wanted to show her friends so she set off up the coast to see them.

A little way along the coast she popped up for a breather

©John Daniels 2014

The seal with the orange hat. [Part 2]

This time with just her head bobbing out of the lovely clear, calm blue sea and enjoying the sun.

She chilled, that’s what she did.

She chilled.

She could see into the harbour she was named after.

She was born on a secret beach near by.

She could see people and families walking on the warm golden sands, some with dogs.

She could see riders on horses trotting in the cool waves.

She could see children having a wonderful time building sand castles and flying kites.

She could see walkers on the cliffs enjoying the views and the cool breeze.

She could see sail boats sailing and her favourites, canoes.

There were two colourful canoes paddling towards her.

She loved the way the paddles went up and down.

Up and down, into the sea and out again, up and down, up and down, like flippers.

She was not frightened of them getting closer and closer.

One canoe was yellow with a man in it.

He saw Solva and pointed.

The other canoe was blue had a man and a woman paddling.

They all wore orange life jackets and shiny orange hard hats on their heads.

“Oooh! They have strange orange shells on their heads. Just what I need.” thought Solva.

You see something always happened when she chilled.

The man in the yellow canoe was getting hot.

So he undid his orange hat and put it on his knees.

Solva’s eyes nearly popped out of her head.

The seal with the orange hat. [part 1]

Solva loves to play in the waves.

Best of all she likes to explore.

She loves caves and shipwrecks

The trouble is, she keeps bumping her head.

The other day she really did bang her head hard on a crusty old bell on a ship wreck when a wave made it swing.

She’d had enough banging her head and went for a good think on a sandy bit of sea bed.

All she could think of was how lucky Crusher Crab and Lucy Lobster were with their hard shell.

What was she to do?

She was in the middle of a really long thought when something tickled her whiskers and made her jump.

“OOH! What was that,” it was only Homer Houdini the Hermit Crab going by.

“Wow,” she thought, “that’s it!”

You see something always happens when she chills out.

Homer didn’t have his own shell.

He used an old left over shell for his home.

“I will have to find a big old shell or something to wear,” thought Solva.

She looked every where.

She tried Oyster shells, no good, too small.

She tried a lost lobster pot, no good, too big.

She tried an old cooking pot from the shipwreck, no good, too heavy and the handle got in the way.

She could not find anything.

It was hopeless.

She was fed up.

What was she do?

©John Daniels 2014