I swim a little closer to see what’s lurking in the shadows. Posey and Sir Pounce follow me.
“It’s a shipwreck!” I cry.
The old ship rests on its side. I count three masts. Long seaweed fronds have grown on the hull. They waft gently in the current. A school of small fish swims from the cabin.
I see a crab scuttle into a hole in the wood while spiky sea urchins cling to the sides of the ship.
“Wow, this boat has become a home for sea creatures!” I say.
“And look!” yelps Posey. “There are brains growing on the deck!”
“Those are not real brains,” I say. Obviously. “It’s brain coral. And I also see purple sea anemones.”
Posey crosses his eyes. “Purple what?”
I giggle because it is such a hard name.
“Ah-nem-oh-nee!” I repeat slowly. “It looks like a pretty flower, but don’t touch it! It stings like a jellyfish.”
Posey swims away from the wiggly anemones to check out a rusty old anchor lying on the sand.
“Does this animal sting?” he asks.
“No, that’s an anchor, not an animal,” I explain. “It holds the ship down in place.”
Posey nods and tells the anchor, “Well, you are doing a very good job.”
Quietly, a strange new creature slips out from the ship. It’s an eight-armed cutie-pie octopus!
“Hi, there!” I say, but the octopus swishes away in a cloud of ink. Oh no! I must have frightened it.
But Posey says something that I can barely hear, and the octopus stops. It points its tentacles at itself. Posey speaks again, and the octopus inches back.
Well, I’ll be a deep-sea diver. Posey knows how to speak octopus, too. Obviously.
“Daisy, this is Inky,” Posey says, introducing the octopus. “She is lost and can’t find her friends.”
Inky waves to me with all her arms, and I wave back with one hand. “I’m sorry to hear you are lost. Can we help?”
The octopus lets out a murmur that is too low for my mermaid ears. Then Posey snaps his fingers and sprinkles imaginary friend dust over us.
This time I hear Inky’s voice loud and clear. “Yes, please!”