Chapter One: The Little Girl and the Fish

The little girl sat on the edge of the river, dangling her toes, daydreaming “I wonders, and what-ifs”, what if I were a fish?

Just then a little fish jumped out of the water and kissed her on the tip of her nose!

So startled out of her reverie, she batted it away and dashed homeward bound

Her feet never touching the ground

I wonder if the little girl will come back to the river bank to let the fish tickle her toes again, without worrying about one jumping out of the water to kiss her on the nose.....?

The little girl ran home and went to her room. She thought and thought and thought about what happened by the river bank. She reacted badly. She knew. She was surprised, but who ever heard of a fish jumping out of the water to kiss a little girl on the tip of her nose? Fish jump out of the water all the time, but this was just unheard of!

She thought and thought and thought.... she could only ask the question – why? She thought some more. I will go back to the river bank and ask the fish.

I watched the little girl walk slowly, slowly, slowly back to the river. Her mother told her to play, but be careful.

Mom, I will be

I know, she said

The little girl stepped quietly through the forest of trees. Birds were there. She could tell they were talking to her.  A beautiful day to stay they said. She knew she should, If only I could, she said.

So frightened of the fish that jumped out of the water to kiss the tip of her nose, but wanting to tell the fish she was sorry she ran away, she couldn't decide which foot went before the other. Was it left right left, or was it right left right?

Confused, she abruptly sat down on an old hollow log, a log she passed a million times on her way to the river to dangle her toes. But today her toes, connected to her feet, would not go. What do I do now? She asked herself. She sat quietly. 

She must have sat there for a day, it seemed to her, a minute at most I'm sure. Should I go or stay? At that moment a small bird flew down to sit next to her on the log. Then something green hopped into her lap, a frog.

She didn't bat them away, she learned her lesson, and this time she sat very still and waited. The bird chirped, the frog croaked.

Well little girl, are you going to just sit there all day, or are you going to get up and be on your way? She wasn't sure, she thought, birds and frogs can't talk!

The little girl continued to sit on the log until she felt like a bump. She laughed at herself, a bump on a log. 

Chirp-chirp, croak-croak, in unison the bird and the frog said, little girl, little girl, it's time we moved on. The little girl was so busy worrying about the fish, she jumped in alarm.

Why are you talking to me, she asked the bird and the frog. And what do you mean "we"? Chirp-chirp, the bird flew into the air and tousled the little girl’s hair. We should hurry, the bird said, before something comes along furry. The frog jumped off of the little girl's lap, and out of the log a wombat waddled. Yes indeed, a wombat!

The light in the window went out in the kitchen. The little girl never knew. She didn't look back, she just sat on the log and thought about this funny furry creature looking up at her from her hollowed out log.

What are you? she said to the little animal staring up into her eyes. 

I'm a Wombat
What's a Wombat? She asked.
I'm a little furry animal that lives in this log. I've come to walk you, Bird, and Frog to the river to see the fish.

I don't know why any of you feel you need to walk me to the river to see the fish that jumped out of the water and kissed the tip of my nose while I was dangling my toes.

The Wombat sat and wondered.

Because we are your new friends, Miss Blue Bird chirped her name, Freddy Frog said his name with a croak.  And Willy Wombat told the little girl his name and waddled around.

Frog hopped and plopped into a puddle of mud, I'm not going anywhere if you're going to be a dud, he said to the little girl.

Bird flew in circles. Come on! Come on! Bird chirped. We'll be late.  

The little girl stood. I don't have a date!

Yes you do, yes you do, yes you do. The three new friends said to the little girl.
The little girl scratched her head. I think I should have stayed in bed! 

The fish are waiting to tickle your toes, Frog said as he hopped out of the puddle of mud.

The little girl decided it best to keep walking to the river's edge. Miss Blue Bird flew, Freddy Frog hopped, and Willy Wombat waddled in and out of the thickets and the hedge.

The little girl was just called the little girl. 

She didn't have a name, not like her new friends.  She sat on the edge of the river thinking about this. She told this to the fishes in the river.  She told this to Miss Blue, Freddy and Willy.  They sat down beside her and listened.  

They said to the little girl, it didn't matter to them if she had a name or not, because she was still who she was, with or without. She became still and wondered, but with disbelief. Everyone has a name, so why not me too, she asked.

The fishes swam around her toes, but since she was too busy thinking her deep thoughts, she forgot and stuck her toes in the water.  The little fishes tickled her toes again, but this time she just giggled.  It tickled.

One little fish saw her smile, and in that moment, the little fish jumped out of the water and kissed the little girl on the tip of her nose.  Oh! The little girl said, startled.  But this time she didn't bat the fish away or run home.  She knew it was because she wasn't frightened, she had her new friends beside her.  

The little fish jumped out of the water again, and in the blink of an eye, he told her he was called The Little Fish.

Not all can have a name, he said, as we think of a name...

Nevertheless, all precious creatures still the same

Now what do I do, she wondered….what if, she thought….?

The little girl sat on the edge of the river bank and dangled her toes….

To her ankles...to her knees...her hips, her waste, her chest, her eyes and nose.

I cannot stay, she told her friends.  And in another blink of an eye, she swam away.

Goodnight, Bird, Frog, Wombat and Little Girl Fish

The moon looked down and winked and blinked, and the spoon ran away with the dish

The Little Girl and The Fish

continues...

Part 2 ~ The River

.........The Little Girl swam and swam, faster than her friend, the fish, could swim.  Catch me, she said, and all that was heard were the bubbles that came from her mouth.  She swam faster, but her friend couldn't keep up, instead, he turned around and headed back to the edge of the pond, where small fish gathered to play in the shallows of weeds and muddy water.

The Little Girl came to a big pool that turned her around and around, water came splashing down from a giant waterfall.  The current took her under, deeper than she had intended to go. She needed to come up to the surface soon before she lost all of the air in her lungs, but the swirling water wouldn't let her go, and deeper and deeper she went into darkness, hitting rocks and weeds, catching her arms and legs, then the tug of the water tore her loose and pulled her deeper and deeper.  She was dragged down, until no light at all filtered through the darkness.

Disoriented and afraid, she was lost completely now, exhausted, her breath was gone. The current played against her lifeless body, and just then a ledge appeared out of nowhere, she was lifted up from the water as if floating on water wings, then gently placed on dry moss, the entrance to an underwater cave.

Part 3 ~ The Rainbow Room

Lie still, a voice whispered close to her ear, lie still.  The Little Girl didn’t move, actually she couldn’t even open her eyes, she was sorely afraid it was all too real.  Had she drowned?  Was she dead?  

Open your eyes Little Girl, open your eyes.

Slowly, ever so slowly, afraid to move, she opened her eyes, blinking uncontrollably but keeping herself as still as still could be.  

Do not move, Little Girl, the voice again whispered, you are near the edge of the ledge of the entrance to the cave of all things bright and beautiful.

The Little Girl stared straight ahead, only to see the rush of water tumbling over mountainous rocks from where she had come, and the roar was deafening, but still she heard the voice whispering in her ear, be not afraid.

The Little Girl felt a touch on her back, and soon she was being lifted and carried away from the edge of the ledge, and into a bright sparkling room, or it appeared to be a room, for the walls were covered in glowing shells, shells like she had never seen before; she was motionless, she was speechless, she was being carried, but wasn't sure how or why; she had two feet, she was able to walk, she was sure of it, at least the last time she looked she had two feet.  But for now all she could see and think about where the bright sparkling walls that illuminated the room of shells with bright colored lights, rainbows, millions and millions of rainbows, shells of every shape and color of the rainbow.