The Puddle That Was an Ocean – Read and Print

By Rachel Dunstan Muller, copyright 2022

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Every night when Theo went to bed, he opened his window just a crack, and fell asleep listening to the sounds of the sea – of seagulls calling overhead, and waves lapping against the shore; even the occasional foghorn.

And this was all very strange, because Theo didn’t live anywhere near the sea!

“How far is the ocean?” he asked his mother at breakfast one morning.

“Very far,” said his mother.

“Could I walk there in one day?” said Theo.

“One day? It would take you many days, Theo. Probably a whole year.”

“That’s a long way,” said Theo. “So – how come I can hear the ocean every night when I go to sleep?”

“Oh, Theo. You can’t hear the ocean from here,” said his mother. “You must be dreaming,”

But Theo was certain he wasn’t dreaming. And so as soon as he was finished his breakfast, he went outside to investigate.

Now, there was a puddle at the very back of Theo’s garden. When it rained, the puddle got bigger, and when it was sunny, the puddle got smaller – but there was always a puddle. And something about that puddle had always seemed curious to Theo – as if it held secrets just beneath its surface.

Theo stood at the edge of the puddle now and stared. And the more he stared, the more certain he was that there was something unusual about that puddle. He got a stick and he crouched down and began to poke at the water.

Almost at once, a little silver fish swam up to the surface and glared.

“What are you doing in my puddle?” said Theo.

“What are you doing poking my ocean?” said the silver fish.

“This isn’t an ocean,” said Theo.

“Careful,” said the silver fish. “Things aren’t always as they appear.”

“But it can’t be an ocean if there’s only room for one fish,” said Theo.

The little silver fish flicked its little tail. “Oh, there’s more than one fish in this ocean. This ocean has a thousand fish. A thousand times a thousand fish. And it has seals, and whales, and all kinds of other creatures.”

Theo didn’t know what to say to that. Clearly there was no room for whales in the puddle at his feet – let alone for all the other things. But still, it was very strange. He did hear the ocean every night as he fell asleep. Could this be it after all?

“Is it a magic ocean?” Theo asked the fish.

“What do you think?” the little fish asked.

“I don’t know,” said Theo. “But if it is a magic ocean, how can I see it – the whole ocean?”

“It’s not easy to see magic things,” said the little fish. “But if you bring me the answer to three riddles, I’ll help you see the ocean. Come back again tomorrow, and when you come, bring something silver, with a head and a tail and no body.” And then without saying goodbye, the little fish dove beneath the surface and disappeared.

Now, I don’t know if you’ve already figured out the fish’s riddle, but it took Theo all day and half the night to make sense of it – what was silver with a head and a tale and no body? But finally, as he lay awake listening to waves somewhere outside his window, he figured out the answer!

The next morning, he went to his special coin collection and took out an old silver dollar. Like every coin, a silver dollar has a head-side, and a tail-side – but no body. He felt quite proud as he carefully dropped his silver dollar into the puddle.

The little fish appeared at once. “Well done,” the little fish said. “That leaves just two more riddles. Tomorrow when you come, bring something that must be broken before it can be used.”

Well, you might know the answer to this riddle, but poor Theo didn’t. No matter how he turned that riddle around in his head, he just couldn’t figure it out. What had to be broken before it could be used?

He had almost given up, but the next morning at breakfast, his mother made him pancakes. And as she broke an egg into the pancake batter and mixed it all up – Theo got it. That was the answer: an egg had to be broken before it could be used!

As soon as he’d finished his pancakes, Theo slipped an egg from the refrigerator and brought it out to the puddle. As the egg sank down in the water, the little silver fish rose up.

“Very well done,” said the little fish. “That leaves just one more riddle: bring me something that gets bigger the more you take away.”

Theo was beside himself with excitement as he left the puddle that morning. He was going to see the magic ocean! But as the rest of the day passed, his spirits began to sink. He just couldn’t make sense of the fish’s last riddle. What gets bigger the more you take away?

Thank goodness he was watching out his front window the next morning, as his neighbour across the street planted a new tree. Before she planted the tree, she had to dig a hole. That was it – a hole gets bigger the more you take away!

It didn’t take Theo long to figure out the next part. He got a shovel from the garden shed, and he started digging a hole right beside the puddle. As he dug, the water from the puddle spilled into the hole. And as the hole got bigger, so did the puddle. Theo was sure the silver fish was going to appear at any moment. But the silver fish did not appear.

Theo took a break to have lunch, and then again to have his dinner. Thanks to his digging, the puddle was much bigger when he finally had to go inside at bedtime. But it wasn’t even the size of a pond – let alone an ocean.

You can imagine how disappointed Theo was as his mother tucked him in that night. When she was gone, he went to his window and opened it a crack. But then he opened it wider. He could hear the ocean; he could smell it. He could almost taste the salt in the air. The waves had come right up to his window; he could lean over and put his hand in the water.

“Ahoy there,” said a voice – a familiar voice – the voice of the little silver fish. But it wasn’t a little fish any more. It was a great, big fish. “Come ride on my back,” said the giant silver fish, “and I will show you the wonders of my ocean.”

And that is exactly what Theo did.

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