One day, they stumbled upon a jellyfish. The teenage son, Oswald, looked at the jellyfish in disbelief; she was so beautiful. She was white, shining so brightly in the blue waters. Oswald could see the most perfectly shaped heart inside her transparent body.
Oswald swam over to his mother and whispered, "mom, why is her heart so perfect? why can't we see my heart?"
"Honey, jellyfish are transparent. You can see everything inside of them. That's what makes them the most beautiful creatures of the sea," Oswald's mother replied.
Oswald instantly found himself battling jealously. He wanted the jellyfish's perfect heart. He wanted all the other sea creatures to think he was the most perfect creature in the sea.
The jealousy was growing inside Oswald and every day, his family swam past this jellyfish. So he decided to steal her heart. At first, he thought it would be difficult to do; he knew how much pride she had in her perfect heart.Oswald approached her and asked for her name. "Sophia," she replied in the most beautiful voice. Instantly, they fell in love. He had never felt this way about anyone before.
For the next couple of months, Sophia and Oswald fell further and further in love. Every day, they went to their favorite spot outside of a large coral reef. They talked for hours and hours. One day, Oswald decided to open up about his hopes about her heart.
"Sophia, these have been some of the greatest days of my life. I really hope to continue this great relationship with you for as long as the gods of the sea allow. However, in order to show our devotion to each other, we need to exchange something. I will help you learn how to camouflage yourself from predators for safety, and in exchange, you will give me your heart so that I always feel like I am with you."
At first, Sophia was hesitant. She admired the perfect heart that she was blessed with. But she knew that she also loved Oswald, and she knew this would make him so happy. So she agreed. She reached in and removed her heart. "It's okay, I don't need it anyways," she said calmly.
Oswald immediately felt relief. He finally got what he wanted; but he actually fell in love with Sophia. He did not want to leave her. So he took the heart, thanked her graciously, and went home to place his newly acquired heart within him.
Oswald and Sophia remained in a good relationship for several years to come, but Oswald never returned the heart and Sophia never wanted it back. All she ever wanted was Oswald.
Ever since then, octopuses have had three hearts, while the jellyfish lack a heart.
Author's Note:
This story had a really interesting story line; it was basically a theory about why the elephants had such small eyes and why worms are blind. In the beginning, the story started with an elephant who used to join the King for dinner and he always ate proportions that were much too big. The tortoise decided one day that this was unfair, and he was going to stop the elephant from eating too much. So the tortoise put the elephant's favorite food in his bag and went to the elephant's house. He was visiting with the elephant, and pulled the food out of his bag and began to eat it. The tortoise closed one eye, to make it seem like he was eating his own eyeball. The elephant was intrigued and wanted some of the food, but the tortoise said that he would have to take his eye out. So the elephant agreed, and the tortoise was raised to eye-level and scooped out the elephant's eye. The elephant loved it, so he scooped out the other one too. When he left, the elephant was blind and wandered around town. He was asking all kinds of animals to borrow their eyes, but nobody would until the elephant stumbled upon the worm. The worm was kind enough to lend out his eyes to the elephant but the elephant could not remove them because they sunk into his face, so he could not return them to the worm. So this stories tells why the elephants have small eyes and why worms are blind.
In order to make this story unique, I decided to change the characters. I knew that octopus' have three hearts, while jellyfish do not have a heart. So I thought it would be perfect to develop a story where the octopus "steals the heart" of a jellyfish, and the octopus never gave it back.
Bibliography:
The Elephant and the Tortoise from Folk Stories From Southern Nigeria by Elphinstone Dayrell (1910).
Image information:
Sophia the Jellyfish. Web Source.
Oswald the Octopus. Web Source.
Arianna, this was a fun way to change a story to incorporate fun facts! I wondered why you decided on an octopus and a jellyfish, so I'm glad your author's note clarified that for me. I did not know octopus' have three hearts and jellyfish don't have one.. How interesting. Your story was very easy to follow and had great imagery when you described the colors and the sound of Sophia's voice. Great job!
ReplyDeleteI will admit that while reading this, I was just like..... what is happening? But at the very last second, at the end of your story, I was like wow! It is the same feeling as when you listen to a joke and finally understand the punchline once the joke is already dead. Seriously, this was a cute little story and did a good job trying to explain an odd phenomenon. Your author's note was great as well.
ReplyDeleteHey Arianna! As I was reading your story I was confused on what was happening. I thought that a human boy was swimming with the jellyfish and that he ended up stealing her heart. It was only at the very end that I realized the story was about an octopus and a jellyfish. I reread your story and realized that I must have glossed over your first sentence and that was why I was left in the dark. Reading your author’s note was great as it clarified a lot of things for me.
ReplyDeleteArianna,
ReplyDeleteThis is such a creative twist to the original story! I never would have thought about changing the original story to different animals like that. Also, I love the suspense you created, as I was pretty concerned that the octopus was going to leave the jellyfish, and I hadn't even been thinking about the story being an explanatory thing because I was so invested in the characters. Great job!