17 Pinocchio Finds His Father!

CHAPTER 17 Pinocchio Finds His Father! Pinocchio walked for what felt like miles to get to the source of the light. Finally he found it, and can you guess what it was? A candle stuck in a glass bottle, sitting on a table. At the table sat not a fish, but a little old man munching on something. Pinocchio squinted and looked closer. Wait —could it possibly be? He wanted to laugh, he wanted to cry, he wanted to say a thousand and one things, but all he could do was stand still, stuttering and stammering brokenly.

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At last, with a great effort, he opened his arms wide and ran, rushing to embrace the little old man. "Father! I have found you at last!" The old man rubbed his eyes. "Could it possibly be?" he stammered and blinked. "Are you really my dear little Pinocchio?" Pinocchio assured him that indeed, he was. Sitting on his father's lap, he then proceeded to tell him, in an excited rush, everything that had happened to him since they had parted ways. "I saw you when you swam out to reach me!" Geppetto exclaimed. "But I couldn't get the boat back to shore. The waves were so rough, and then this terrible shark came and swallowed me." "And you have been here, in the shark's stomach, for these past two years?" Pinocchio

asked, amazed. "How have you survived?" Geppetto explained that the shark had also swallowed a large sunken ship, free of sailors, but loaded with meat, canned goods, crackers, raisins, cheese, coffee, sugar, candles, and matches. "Unfortunately," Geppetto said, "I am down to my final crumbs and my very last candle." "And then?" "And then, my son, we shall find ourselves sitting in darkness." "Then there is no time to lose!" Pinocchio cried. "We must try to escape! Pinocchio suggested that they run out of the shark's mouth and dive into the sea, but Geppetto, like the tunny, was scared and unsure. "I can't swim," he added. "Well I can," Pinocchio replied. "I will

carry you on my shoulders! Don't be afraid. Come on!" Father and son walked a long while through the stomach and the whole body of the shark. When they reached the throat, they stopped and hid behind a tonsil, waiting for just the right moment to make their move. That poor old asthmatic shark slept with its mouth open in order to breathe. Pinocchio could look out and see the starry sky. Grabbing Geppetto's hand, Pinocchio whispered, "Now!" The two climbed up the throat, walking carefully on their tiptoes across the shark's thick spongy tongue, trying not to tickle him. But tickle him they must have for, at that moment, the shark gave a terrible wheeze, violently sucking them back down into his

stomach. To make matters worse, the candle had now gone out and the two were left in darkness. "Oh well," Geppetto said. "We tried." "And we will try again!" Pinocchio vowed. "Give me your hand, dear Father, and don't be scared." With these words, Pinocchio led his father back up the throat, across the tongue, and carefully over three rows of teeth. At the edge of the shark's mouth, Pinocchio told his father to climb aboard. With Geppetto seated comfortably on his shoulders, Pinocchio did a swan dive into the ocean and began to swim. The sea was smooth, and the moon lit their way. Finally they were free, reunited and headed home. Everything seemed fine, until Pinocchio