16 Pinocchio Meets the Shark

CHAPTER 16 Pinocchio Meets the Shark Pinocchio ran so fast that, upon reaching a cliff next to the sea, he couldn't stop. He plunged right over the edge! He inhaled a great deal of water and thought he would drown. And perhaps he would have, had a thousand fish not suddenly surrounded him—sent, they said, by Fairy. The fish began to nibble on his ears, his nose, his neck, and his mane. One fish even did him the great favor of eating his hairy tail. When the fish were done eating all the

meat, they came to the bones—or rather, in Pinocchio's case, to the wood that the puppet was made of. But it was very hard wood—the kind that gave fish indigestion— and so they swam away and the puppet was saved. Pinocchio was a light and bouncy puppet once more, and he turned and started to swim out to sea. Soon he spotted a large white rock in the middle of the sea. On the rock stood a little blue goat, bleating and beckoning to the puppet. Something about the goat seemed familiar. It was her blue hair, Pinocchio realized. It reminded him of Fairy's! Kicking his legs even harder, he speed-swam toward the rock to greet her. Just then, however, a horrible sea monster with a huge head lunged out of the water in

front of him. Do you know what it was? None other than the enormous shark that has already been mentioned in this story. "Look out!" bleated the little blue goat. And Pinocchio tried to look out. He swam and kicked as hard as he could, but it was no use. The monster opened its mouth and Pinocchio disappeared into it. Pinocchio found himself resting on the shark's tongue, in between three rows of gleaming white teeth. A second later, however, and without even chewing him first, the shark swallowed the tiny puppet as easily as if he were a pill. He sucked Pinocchio down deep into his stomach with one satisfied gulp. Pinocchio must have fainted from fear, or hit his hard wooden head during the fall. When he awoke, he could not remember

where he was. It was pitch-black in that shark's stomach. Once in a while, a cold breeze blew. Some time later, Pinocchio remembered what had happened and realized that the breeze was from the shark breathing. (The poor shark was suffering from asthma, so it was some breeze!) Pinocchio burst into tears. "Help! Help!" he cried. "Oh, poor me! Won't someone come to save me?" "And who do you think will hear and help you in here?" asked a rough gravelly voice beside Pinocchio. "Who's there?" Pinocchio whispered. It turned out that the voice belonged to a poor tunny fish, which had also been swallowed by the shark. "What kind of fish are you?" the tunny fish asked.

"What are we going to do?" Pinocchio replied, ignoring the question. "Wait until the shark has digested us both, I suppose," the tunny fish said in a resigned voice. "But I don't want to be digested," shouted Pinocchio, starting to sob. "Well neither do I," said the tunny. "But I suppose dying this way is more dignified than being fried up in a pan." Pinocchio guessed that the tunny was right, and he was certainly grateful that he was no longer covered in flour. But unlike the tunny, he refused to give up so easily. Just then, about a mile in the distance, Pinocchio thought he saw a faint light. Thinking that he might find some other poor swallowed soul, possibly a wise old fish who might know how to escape, Pinocchio vowed to reach the light.

"Come with me," Pinocchio suggested. "No," the tunny sighed. "I'm too scared to try. Good luck and good-bye!"