Dolphin Saviors

Olivia Szczepanski

Age 11

Dolphin Saviors

Bell woke up to the cries of the gulls that were circling the boat house, hoping for some fish scraps. She gazed out at the seemingly endless sea in front of her and wished that she didn’t have to get out of bed this early. But, she reminded herself that it was only for today because yesterday evening, her mother had received a call about a tangled bottlenose dolphin out in the sea. So, she went off in their motor boat, the Unboatable (like Unbeatable) to go save the dolphin. That meant Bell had to get up early to go fishing so that she could make breakfast for her and her younger sister, Anne, when they woke up. Usually her mother did this, but today she was too tired.

Bell went to the deck of the Boatiful (like beautiful), their houseboat, and grabbed her fishing poles. She set them up and started the burner. Within minutes, two of her lines were taught. She grabbed one and flipped a beautiful sheephead onto the deck. She reached for the other one and found that there was a pufferfish on it. Disgusted with the meager catch, she threw the pufferfish back into the ocean, but not before she took a picture of it for Anne. Anne was fascinated by pufferfish.

She pulled the sheephead off her line and quickly skinned it. After baiting and putting the rods back in the water, she cooked the fish. Before long the delicious smell of cooked sheephead was floating around the harbor. Just then, one of her lines snapped; she whirled around and gazed into the depths of the sea. All of a sudden, someone pushed her into the water, and as she fell, she caught a glimpse of a man’s scarred face. Her heart leaped because she recognized that man! That was none other than the notorious poacher, Robert Roiman, AKA her father.

She gaped in shock, which was a bad move because then water filled her mouth and lungs. She coughed and floundered. She knew how to swim, but not while she was choking. All of a sudden everything was black.

When she came to, she was floating on the back of some creature. For a millisecond she thought it was a whale, but then she realized that she was laying on the slippery back of a dolphin. As she stared up at the gulls circling above her, she wondered where she was. Bell sat up and looked around. She

saw her house boat in the distance! She knew that she had to swim back, so after patting the dolphin on the back in thanks, she slipped into the water and started swimming. She swam, and swam, and swam. Just when she thought that she couldn’t swim anymore, four white dolphins swam around her. She gratefully climbed onto one of their backs and fell asleep. When she woke up, the dolphins around her were making a lot of noise. Suddenly she saw why; in front of them, there was a shark.

Her heart seemed to leap into her throat. She had read about sharks attacking humans, but never thought that it would happen to her. Then, she realized what the dolphins were doing. They were protecting her.

She saw that the Boatiful was not very far off. She knew that she had to take a chance and swim to it. Without thinking any longer, she dove into the water. Green and blue swirled past her; she swam her fastest. Then, she saw the shark coming up behind her, and she kicked her feet, but that did not deter it. Bell saw a colony of fish in front of her. She had to swim through them in order to get to the houseboat. Then, the shark sped past her, and it grabbed a huge mouthful of fish and lazily swam off. Bell surfaced and cried in relief. She was not going to be eaten by a shark, and the Boatiful was right in front of her. She climbed the ladder and sunk down in exhaustion. Then, she got up and got to work: catching and cooking more fish.

The End