Mondays and Magic
Olivia Szczepanski Age 11
Dolphin Saviors Bell woke up to the cries of the gulls that were circling the boat house, hoping for some fish scraps. She gazed out at the seemingly endless sea in front of her and wished that she didn’t have to get out of bed this early. But, she reminded herself that it was only for today because yesterday evening, her mother had received a call about a tangled bottlenose dolphin out in the sea. So, she went off in their motor boat, the Unboatable (like Unbeatable) to go save the dolphin. That meant Bell had to get up early to go fishing so that she could make breakfast for her and her younger sister, Anne, when they woke up. Usually her mother did this, but today she was too tired. Bell went to the deck of the Boatiful (like beautiful), their houseboat, and grabbed her fishing poles. She set them up and started the burner. Within minutes, two of her lines were taught. She grabbed one and flipped a beautiful sheephead onto the deck. She reached for the other one and found that there was a pufferfish on it. Disgusted with the meager catch, she threw the pufferfish back into the ocean, but not before she took a picture of it for Anne. Anne was fascinated by pufferfish. She pulled the sheephead off her line and quickly skinned it. After baiting and putting the rods back in the water, she cooked the fish. Before long the delicious smell of cooked sheephead was floating around the harbor. Just then, one of her lines snapped; she whirled around and gazed into the depths of the sea. All of a sudden, someone pushed her into the water, and as she fell, she caught a glimpse of a man’s scarred face. Her heart leaped because she recognized that man! That was none other than the notorious poacher, Robert Roiman, AKA her father. She gaped in shock, which was a bad move because then water filled her mouth and lungs. She coughed and floundered. She knew how to swim, but not while she was choking. All of a sudden everything was black. When she came to, she was floating on the back of some creature. For a millisecond she thought it was a whale, but then she realized that she was laying on the slippery back of a dolphin. As she stared up at the gulls circling above her, she wondered where she was. Bell sat up and looked around. She
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