Squirt, the Turtle

In the bottom of the ocean, on the sea bed, there lived a turtle family of four. The father turtle’s name was Ramon. The mother’s name was Elizabeth or Liz for short. The two younger turtles were James and Jessica. Jessica was older than James by one year. James was 10½ years old and Jessica (nicknamed Jessie) was 11. Jessica loved to tease James and call him Squirt. James just couldn’t guess why. Well, the secret is, whenever James slept, he squirted out water from his mouth! This was kind of annoying to Jessica because the water he squirted always fell on Jessie’s shell.

So Jessie dug a small hole and used the sand as a blanket to cover her underground. The problem of the water falling on her was solved.

Squirt (this nickname will be used through out the story), in the morning, used the seaweed to clean his jaws. He also used the seaweed (with the help of Jessie) to polish his shell. This made his shell look shiny and nice. He always did this before he went to a party. To take a good sponge bath, Squirt went to the coral reefs and looked for the sea sponges. Once he found them, he rubbed himself against it. Boy, wasn’t that very comforting!
Squirt’s shell was very important for protection. Once a shark tried to bite him when he was in the coral reef, but Squirt was quick to pull his head, legs and tail into his shell. The shark’s teeth scratched against the shell and Squirt heard a grinding sound. He immediately knew what happened. The shark had broken his teeth!
Another time, an octopus tried to squeeze him to death. But Squirt’s shell saved him again. The shell was so hard it only hurt the octopus!! As soon as Squirt got the chance, he bit the octopus and swam away.
Once he got home, he told Jessie what had happened. Jessie scanned the shell and told him that his shell looked pretty O.K, but he would need a sea-anemone massage by the clown fish. Squirt jumped at the thought. He didn’t really want to have an anemone massage, but he knew he had to. Jessie sent a few lion fishes to get Mr. Ray, the electric ray who transported the creatures of the sea bed. There were other rays that did this too. But the turtle family used Mr. Ray as they trusted him. Jessie asked her parents (who don’t come in the story much) if she could take Squirt to the hospital. The parents agreed.
When Mr. Ray came, Jessie and Squirt jumped onto his back and he took them to the National Anemone Hospital. It was the place where all the doctors of the seabed treated their patients. The hospital was, of course, the remains of the TITANIC. The fishes built additions to the wreck and made it more welcoming. Mr. Ray slowly glided down to the parking lot and let the turtles get off safely. Jessica took out her seaweed purse from her shell and paid Mr. Ray in sea dollars(S$), which was the currency of the ocean. Mr. Ray thanked her and said goodbye. Jessie led Squirt to the reception desk. The receptionist was a friendly squid. Using its many tentacles, it arranged all the papers (made of woven seaweed) in order. Jessie told the squid they needed to see Dr. Clownfish|. The receptionist handed over the pass and requested Jessie to put her handprint on it. Jessie dipped her hand in the squid ink and pressed on the pass. A good print appeared on the card and Jessie blew on it gently to help it dry. The squid called some lion fishes to take the pass to the clownfish, for them to sign if they were free. The lion fish swam to the clownfish office. The clownfish were free so they signed the pass. The lionfish took the pass to the squid who gave it to Jessie. The turtles thanked the receptionist and swam toward the clown fishes office. The hallway was very beautiful. Colorful plants like red seaweed were hung from the ceiling. Rocks and starfishes were stuck on the walls. Sea anemones were spread across the ceiling and walls. The turtles finally found clown fishes’ office and knocked on the door (which was just some old wood put together.) Dr. Clownfish came to the door and told the turtles to wait in the hallway. Then the clownfish got back into its office and came out with two big clown fish suits. He told the turtles to wear the clownfish suits. So Jessie and Squirt wore their suits but wondered why they had to. But the minute the turtles got into the room they knew why. For inside, tentacles covered the office floor. The office was a huge sea anemone!!!
Squirt looked around, very interested. Jessica understood that the suits would protect them from the stinging tentacles of the anemone. Clown fishes never get stung by the anemone because they are used to it. The clown fish then took Squirt by the tail and asked him to stand on the weight and height scale. Once it was recorded, Squirt was asked to lie on the seaweed bed. Dr. Clownfish then took an instrument that resembled a stethoscope except that this instrument was used to see if there were any bumps on the body.Dr. Clownfish pressed a small button on the seaweed bed and suddenly a dome (made of the umbrella part of a huge jellyfish) appeared around the clown fishes and turtles protecting them, from the tentacles of the anemone. The turtles looked astounded, but the Dr. Clownfish just smiled as if nothing happened. Then, very gently, he took off the clownfish coat that Squirt was wearing and ran the bumpescope (the instrument that resembled the stethoscope) across Squirt’s shell. There was a small dent in the shell. Dr.Clownfish pressed another button on the seashell and a small hole appeared in the dome. One of the tentacles came into the hole. Dr.Clownfish grabbed the tentacle and started rubbing it over the dent. Squirt enjoyed the massage and he felt refreshed. Jessie paid 20 sea dollars and together with Squirt left the doctor’s office. Mr. Ray was waiting for them at the parking lot. Jessie whispered something to Mr. Ray and he nodded. Squirt didn’t hear what Jessie said as he was staring at the beautiful corals. Slowly the ray began to land in front of “OCEAN SHOPS”. “Why are we landing here?” Squirt asked Jessie. “Well, since you were such a good turtle at the hospital, I thought we could check out some turtle stuff out at the ocean shops,” said Jessie. Squirt got so excited. Jessie quickly paid Mr. Ray and jumped off the ray with Squirt. Jessie gave Squirt his wallet. You might not know, but the turtle family was the richest family in the sea bed. The family’s nickname was the “Underwater Bill Gates family”. But the family was not greedy. They gave the money for charity and other good reasons. Jessie and Squirt both got 200 billion dollars for themselves. Jessie had gotten more money because she was older then Squirt. Squirt wanted to buy a gift for Jessie and Jessie wanted to buy a gift for Squirt. Squirt looked around but didn’t see anything interesting. Neither did Jessie. So they went home sadly. “I wanted to buy you a gift” Jessie and Squirt told each other at the same time, “but there was nothing good!” “Well, as long as we stay together and be best friends (and siblings), that will be the perfect gift for me!” Jessica said. Squirt nodded and said “I guess so Jessica. I guess so!”