Once upon a time there was an evil fish. He loved to feed on the desires of man, especially greed. He would trick the beach goers with promises of treasure. All he told them was to walk to ankle deep waters and they would be able to reach the treasure. This particular beach, however, was prone to quick tide changes, so that if a person spent too much time in ankle deep water, they would end up in waist deep water and before they knew it, the rip tide would pull them far out into sea. The fish was successful in drowning everyone he had met so far, as it was easy to play with man’s greed.
One day a little girl skipped by the fish. The fish called out to her and caught her attention. She noticed the fish and ran to it.
The fish told her, “If you follow me into the water, I will show you where a magnificent treasure lies.”
The little girls asked the fish what a treasure was, as if she had learned a new word. Frustrated the fish explains to her what a treasure was, but by the time we was finished with his explanation, the little girl had lost interest, and had started digging into the damp sand with a nearby sandstone rock she found. The fish then decides that he would show her some coral reefs, telling her that they are toys.
He told the little girl “Stay here, I’ll show you what kind of treasures you can have.”
She nodded her head in agreement. The fish came back shortly with many different kinds of coral and showed them to the girl.
The girl tilted her head when looking at them, then her eyebrows shot up and she smiled. She holds up the sandstone rock that she was holding and adds it to the fish’s collection of coral he had made.
The fish, frustrated, asks her, “Wouldn’t you want more of this treasure?”
The child had lost interest again and started digging into the sand again. The fish swam around in the shallow water, and wondered else to tempt her with. He noticed the small bright red bucket that she carried. He peered inside of it and noticed the many different shells that she collected, and watches her place a new shell she had been digging for into the bucket.
The fish quickly dove under water and retrieved the most beautiful shells that he could find. He arranged six of them on the beach in a semi-circle, pinned up behind him as if he were a vendor showing off his wares. The fish then called to the girl. The girl turned around and becomes delighted at the shells, glancing at them as they were brand new toys. She walked up to the fish and admired the shells.
The fish then tells her “If you take two steps behind me, you can find all of the shells you want.”
With that, the girl reaches into her bucket and pulls out a large, bright orange shell, and stands it up next to the other shells in his collection and smiles broadly.
The fish, aggravated now, figured that he could not lure this little girl in, and decided to give up. As he turned around to swim back to sea, he noticed how shallow the water had become. Worried, the fish swam as fast as he could, but ran into his line of shells, he quickly turned to the side to swim around them, but fell on his side instead, as the last remaining surf disappeared. The fish looked up at the hot sun, trying to catch his breath with the thin air around him. He felt his skin drying up, and his eyes glazing over in the hot sun. He looked around and noticed the girl, now very blurry, squatting beside him and staring at the fish. He could not let a single word out to the girl, as his mouth was completely dry. He wondered if the people he led into the sea had felt the same way. On his last gasp of air, he felt himself lifting into the air and into the light. With a splash he landed back into the cool ocean, his breath returning to him, and his vision clearing. He glanced back to the shore and saw the little girl waving at him. Around him he saw the shells he collected floating downwards, including the large orange shell that the little girl had given him.
Since then, there had not been a single drowning on that beach.
Just some practice.