The Goldfish and the Bell
Thank you for visiting my blog! I’m excited this morning to try something new with my short stories. If you haven’t been following my short stories for kids at home due to the Covid shutdowns, check them out on my podcast: https://anchor.fm/alison-hendrix2/episodes/Rain-Deer-efhrhc
Today, I used a beautiful song by the incredibly talented Adam Foote, he goes by Ethereal in E, and he plays handpan. Check out his Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/Ethereal.in.E This is peaceful, soulful, simply beautiful music. This morning, I listened to this song, and then wrote a quick short story. Please listen to his song here:
Now that you’ve listened to this lovely piece of music, I hope you will enjoy this super short story I wrote. You can hear the bell at 1:50!
The Goldfish and the Bell
A brilliantly colored goldfish raced along a sparkling stream, his golden scales glittering as he rushed gleefully above rounded pebbles and brush on the bottom of the streambed. He loved this time of day; golden morning sun poured across a meadow, filling his rushing stream with glittering light. He loved swimming along as fast as he could every golden morning, a smile on his face, and a friendly, though fast, good morning greeting for his friends.
Today he rushed along, as every day, gliding in and out, in and out. But, he suddenly slowed, tilting his head. “What was that?” he wondered, then slowed his swimming even more and listened intently. The sweet sound of a bell ringing could be barely heard above the happy chirp of the creek and the bubbles whooshing past. He wriggled close to the surface and hid behind some leaves that had become wedged against a rock.
He could hear the bell clearly now, what a lovely sound! He listened to it play for a while, melodically, rhythmically, as if to match the tempo of the stream. He didn’t know how long he’d been there, enchanted by the smooth new tones, when he just couldn’t help himself. He had to swim around the leaves that hid him and see that lovely bell.
He swam from his hiding place and his fishy eyes opened wide in surprise. A beautiful young maiden with hair as red as a spring tulip was sitting on the grass beside the stream. She was wearing a pale blue, flowing dress that shimmered in the morning sun. In her hands, she held a tiny silver bell. She was striking it softly with a tiny mallet. It looked like a stick with a red rubber ball on the end, but the goldfish thought it must be a magic wand, as it made that tiny bell give such a lovely musical tone!
The maiden noticed the sparkling goldfish watching her from the stream. It startled her to see him there, so much that she dropped that lovely little bell right into the stream! It rushed away, carried by the waters, tinking here and there on a stone or stick.
Without hesitation, the goldfish took off after it, dipping and swirling and gliding to catch up. The bell was hurried along by the waters, who seemed to want to make it a game for the goldfish, then tucked the bell away into a small eddy pool just as the goldfish was catching up. He swam right past it in his haste, but he heard the bell clinking a bit against a few stones that lined the pool. He rushed back and was relieved to find it there, safe and sound.
He grabbed the silver treasure in his mouth and swam back up the stream to where the maiden still sat. He lifted his head, and the bell, above the water, and the pretty girl reached out and took it, a smile on her face.
She said, “Lovely goldfish, thank you for returning this to me! It was a precious gift from my father, the King, and I should have been so very sad to lose it!” She hugged the bell to her freckled face and asked, “Would you like to come live with me, in my palace? You will be well cared for there! I will give you the largest crystal bowl we have to live in, and I’ll feed you myself three times a day! Oh the fun we’ll have!”
The goldfish shook his head. He replied, “Dear lady, I thank you for your kind offer, but there is no place like this stream of mine, where I can rush along feeling the bubbles go past, and where the sunlight makes everything golden in the mornings, golden like I am.”
The maiden said, “Of course. But you and I shall be friends forever!”
And she was true to her word. Nearly every morning, the red-haired princess would come to the stream, and the goldfish would swim to see her and hear her play the silver bell, softly, softly, softly, until it was time for her to go.
The End.
