Ollie and Angel
Written and Illustrated by Irish Monahan
Deep down in the ocean, Ollie and Angel were playing a game. They were playing hide and seek.
Angel was better at the game because she could dart through the tiny cracks in rocks. Ollie couldn’t. His eight tentacles got in his way.
Frustrated, Ollie plopped on the sandy bottom of the ocean and pouted.
“Why do I have to be so big? It isn’t fair!” he said.
Angel looked at her friend. She didn’t like when he was sad, so she swam over to him.
“Ollie, you’re not too big for an octopus,” she said kindly.
“But I’m too big to play hide and seek with you,” Ollie pointed out.
“There are lots of places you can hide, too,” Angel said.
Suddenly, a large dark shadow appeared above the two friends. Angel froze. She knew that shadow.
Ollie looked around and noticed he and Angel were no longer close to home. They’d been playing and had drifted further out than they’d meant.
The great white shark above them smacked his lips. He could already taste his lunch.
“Angel,” Ollie whispered. “I have an idea.”
Quickly, he told Angel what he had planned. Angel darted between Ollie’s tentacles and hid.
Ollie used his secret weapon: an ink spray that would blind the great white shark long enough for them to escape. Then, Ollie held onto Angel’s fin and twisted himself tightly.
When he stopped twisting, he and Angel shot up through the water very fast.
Together, they swam back home.
Ollie thought a lot on the way home. At last he said, “ I’m glad I am big and an octopus.”
“Me, too,” said Angel, glad her friend was happy again.
