Olaf the Whale

by Gerry

Children's short story

Once upon a time in the far off village of Kan on the beach of the coast, there were three young children Lena, Raoul, and Zoe. One day while on the beach the three children were busy picking periwinkles, a strange thing happened. There from the sea suddenly appeared a whale. The thing was, this was no ordinary whale. It unmistakably was the colour orange!! “Look, look at the orange whale, coming this way”, cried Zoe. Sure enough there it was. Raoul’s eyes gazed wide open with the delight of seeing this orange whale swim merrily towards them. “Ahoy there, I’m Olaf!”, said the whale to the startled children.
What has you out on the edge of the coast on this mighty fine day!?”
Lena said, with some hesitancy, as you see, this would be the first time she would reply to a talking whale, “Mom told us to pick as many molluscs that would fill half a bucket so that she could sell at the market”. With that the whale replied, “ You’re good children”.
For the next while, the three children and the whale had a long conversation about everything you could mention.
It was getting late and their mother might have been getting a little worried so they told Olaf that they had to go. Before they went they agreed to meet the following day at the same place. The children hurried home and arrived at their family cottage jumping and bright eyed when they entered the front door. Their mother and father were awaiting them.
Their mother said, “What has you all so excited?”
Zoe replied, “Mommy, mommy we saw a whale by the sea. It was all orange and he could talk.”
Naturally, their mother doesn’t believe a word Zoe said and said, “What’s that nonsense!? Where are the periwinkles I asked you to bring?” With that, Lena comes in with the bucket of molluscs more than half full.
“Those molluscs will be great for tomorrow at the market”, mother says “and if you get yourself ready for bed we will have some blueberries with lashings of cream for supper.”
“Yummy”, replied Zoe.
Lena said, “It was exciting day today. You should have seen the whale mom. He was beautiful and kind. He said we’ll have a short winter this year!”
“That’s enough children”, their mother said. “Get ready for bed and come downstairs and we’ll have supper.”
Raoul couldn’t keep quiet for all of the first hour of going to bed and had almost worn himself out talking about their big adventure that might happen the following day. Zoe had long fallen asleep as she was so exhausted from trying to keep up with Lena and Raoul on their way home that evening.

The next morning, the children were up bright and early. They were all excited about seeing Olaf again. Each of them secretly thought they had imagined it all the previous day. But there was absolutely no sign of Olaf. They waited another full 60 seconds but still no sign of their friendly whale. They felt really disappointed and Zoe at this stage was close to tears.
“Look”, cried Lena, “Look over there beside the rocks!
A fountain of water came from the water below surface. Up popped Olaf. “You’re early”, said Olaf, with a smile on his face.
I didn’t expect to see you until at least two turns of an egg timer.”
The children replied hurriedly with breaths held back with excitement, “We couldn’t wait to see you again, Olaf.
We thought we might have dreamt the whole thing.”
“Would you like to see another place where there is no sky?
“Yes”, replied Raoul and Zoe together.
“But where is that?”, asked Raoul, surely there’s no such a place, as Raoul had just about started to study physics and all that stuff and felt he had an authority on all things.
“It’s on the sea bed, where fishes sleep and are merry. If you like to come I can bring you,” Olaf said.
“Is that possible!?”, Lena asked nervously.
“Sure”, replied Olaf.
“OK”, was Lena reply. “But we have to be back by 4. Mommy will be expecting us and she will be very cross if we are late.
“Hop on my back so we can go together”, said Olaf.
One by one the children climbed up on the whale’s back. Raoul first, then Zoe and then Lena who had kept a good hold of Zoe, just in case she got too excited.
“It is just off Skar island yonder”, Olaf reported.
Olaf was beached on the sand. It took more than one swish of his tail to move himself off the beach into the sea - as he was a lot heavier than he usually is. “I haven’t been this heavy since I ate a huge feast last Christmas”, he giggled.
“Mind you don’t sit on my airway”, said Olaf apologetically.
“That hole you see on top allows me to breathe you see. From time to time I suck water from the sea and blow it out on top.”
“See”, he added, while at the same time a fountain of water trickled over the three children.
The children were really excited. Olaf was in about 10 metres of water and was swimming with great skill and ease it seemed.
The sun was hot and there was a glare from the sea.
“Wow, it’s hot!” said Raoul.
“Isn’t it great?”
Soon they were near the island.
Olaf said, “This is where we have to go under”, he said.
“But we have not brought any swimwear with us”, replied Lena and we certainly cannot swim underwater.
“It’s OK”, replied Olaf. “I’ll make you a bubble so that you can travel with me down to the bottom of sea.
“Get back to the small of my back until I make the bubble”, said Olaf.
With that Olaf sucked a humungous amount of water in and blew very hard. Sure enough a bubble started to appear from the hole on his head. When he had finished, there it was, the biggest bubble you ever did see, on his head.
“Now get in”, Olaf ordered politely.
“How can we?” Lena retorted.
“Just step in”, Olaf replied.
“It’s easy. Just believe that you can do it.”
So Raoul tried first. Up to the bubble he went. Looked at it for a minute. He could see his reflection in it.
Gosh he looked big, he thought. Then he pressed his hand against the outer wall of the bubble.
“It’s like water”, he said.
“Try stepping into it”, Lena suggested.
So Raoul did. Within a full second he had walked straight into the bubble.
“Cool!!!”, Raoul exclaimed.
No sooner had all three got inside, when Olaf gushed a jet of water from his breathing hole.
Up and up, went the bubble.
“Weeeeee”, cried Zoe.
The fountain of water stopped as suddenly as it had started and the bubble and the three children disappeared below the surface of the sea.
“Look”, cried Raoul, “we are under the water”.
“Fantastic”, cried Lena.
Down and down they went, the whale close by, making sure everything was indeed OK.
What a spectacle they could see; all the fishes in the sea they could see and not a sky in sight.
“Look at all those colours”, Zoe exclaimed.
“And all kinds of shapes too”, replied Raoul. “This is magic!”
There below, deep under the sea, the children saw wonders that filled their eyes; deep deep red coral that was hard as rock it seemed; bright orange frond like seaweed that moved effortlessly with every movement of sea current. There were also balloon like coral that was spongy to touch and seahorses that hung on reeds that swayed like merry men.
Blue and white stones decorated the seabed. Here and there were sea shells scattered nestling among the pebbles that glistened with every passing fish. Every fish you could see could be seen in every shape and colour. Zebra fish, gold fish and tropical orange fish.
“I want to show you what we do down here”, Olaf said. “Look over here. This is where we make the salt. These sharks are known as hammerhead sharks. They pound the blocks of salt into fine pieces. Then it dissolves and floats invisibly into the water and that is how all sea water is salty to taste. We don’t work too hard down here and that is why there is not much salt in the sea off the coast of Kan. The turtle and the swordfish between them break the large mountain of salt into smaller grains that are brought here with the courtesy of Roger the Rayfish. It is his turn now but Roy over there will help out later.”
The other fish were busying themselves playing tip chasing between the coral. It seemed all the fish wanted to get involved. Out came Dippy the Dolphin from the coral and caught Roy the Rayfish unawares, then followed Totty the Turtle who was easily tagged, due to his sluggish movements and was no match for Roy. Up popped Otto the Octopus and Totty almost collided with him. Now it was Otto’s turn as fish in the middle.
Ooops!!
This went on for ages from fish to the next and back again. The children watched in amazement at all the happenings down here.
Time passed quickly. Then, all of a sudden from behind the dark blanket of sea came two great white sharks. In a flash all fish disappeared to their beds and secret hideaways.
Up, one of the sharks named Simon, went and said “Gulp, where’s me lunch?”
Olaf then said to the startled children, “Don’t worry children. It’s only teatime. We play this game this time everyday.
Sandwiches for all are ready at Little Otto’s Inn.”
But it was almost time for tea for the children too and they had to get back soon.
“We must head back, Olaf”, Lena requested reluctantly.
“Mom and Dad will be waiting”.
“OK”, replied Olaf.
“We will head home now. Say farewell to all here and we can visit another time”.
So Zoe, Raoul and Lena said their goodbyes and thanked all for such a great time.
“How cool it must be to live down here”, Raoul said.
Olaf propelled the bubble upwards towards the surface. Up and up they went until they popped out onto the surface.
However when they surfaced it looked like a storm was brewing. The storm blew up quickly.
“We’re not going to make it home”, Zoe said.
“I’m afraid it does look like it”, replied Olaf, who was busily thinking to himself.
One eye was closed and what appeared to be a little frown on his face.
“Wait a turn of the egg timer” Olaf the Whale said.
“I’ve got an idea….!”
“We can’t risk keeping you in the bubble as it may burst on the rocks and you will hurt yourselves very badly. You can’t safely stay on my back either with the waves as big as they are.”
“I know what we’ll do”, Olaf said brightly.
“We’ll ask the white horses to guide you pass the dangerous rocks safely onto the beach.”
With that Olaf the Whale made a loud shrill that must have travelled many leagues under the water.
No sooner than he had done that when there many white horses around each and every one of them willing to help the children.
“This is great fun”, Zoe said inside the bubble.
“Look at all the white horses. Soon we will be home back safely with mom and dad.”
Wave after wave the white horses washed against the giant bubble. The children were bobbing from side to side inside the bubble.
“I can see our beach”, Raoul pointed.
As soon as the bubble touched the beach it burst and the three children fell out and landed in inches of water.
Zoe and Raoul looked back and saw Olaf in the distance.
“Bye, Olaf. Thanks for the trip”, Raoul said.
“I hope we will see you again sometime”, said Lena anxiously.
“Tomorrow, if you like”, replied Olaf.
And so they did. And also the day after that. And the day after that too.
So for weeks the children went to see Olaf. He would tell them stories about places far away, what was happening in other parts of the world and of course what was happening down under the sea where there was no sky.
One day Olaf came but this time he told the children that he had to go and that he wouldn’t be back for a long long time.
The children were very disappointed but understood that Olaf had other places to visit and other things to do.
“Remember every time you see the white horses they pass a message to you about all of us and the adventures we are having”, Olaf said.
With that he took a swish of his tail and dived and that was the last time they saw Olaf as children.
But every storm the white horses would let them know about Olaf.
The children were amazed each time and they told their friends about their amazing adventure and to this day they still talk about it.

THE END