A Bathtub In The Sea

• Josie Hardy, Grade 4
• Short Story
• 2021

Once there lived a lovely young girl named Holly. She was seven years old, had long tan hair and a shimmering blue dress. She had been burying herself in the sand on the beach next to her house. She decided to go inside and wash her hands because they were covered in golden sand. She went to the sink in the bathroom. Before she could turn the tap on water suddenly burst out of it. She couldn’t turn it off. She noticed that the drain was overflowing. There was water everywhere! Holly panicked! As fast as she could she ran to the bathtub and leaped in.
The bathtub, with Holly inside, lifted up, up, up with the water. Holly was shocked and scared. She realised that the window was open and tried frantically to steer the bathtub away. But she couldn’t, it was too late. The bathtub whooshed out the window and into the ocean with a big splash. The ocean was dark blue, had rough waves and was very very deep. The bathtub floated off with Holly. She screamed for help! A family of four turtles were swimming under the water and they heard her so they went up to see what was the matter. Holly asked “Who are you?” They replied “Our names are Polly, Pearl, Coral and Tom. Who are you and why are you floating in a bathtub in the middle of the ocean?” Holly explained what had happened and asked if they would help her find her way home. The turtles happily agreed to help.
Polly and Tom stayed with Holly to keep the bath steady in the rough waves. Coral looked for coconuts floating on the ocean and Pearl swam to an island to find a spiky yellow pineapple. They took them back to Holly who was thankful because she was starving. Tom noticed that it was getting dark and Holly was shivering. Tom and Polly found some seaweed to wrap around her to keep her warm. All the turtles helped to keep the bath steady. Eventually they all fell asleep.
The next morning Holly saw something floating far off in the distance. Coral swam off to see what it was. She yelled back “It’s a map!” Pearl figured out where they were and together they figured out how to get home. The turtles steered the bathtub by pushing it through the water. It took one day to get home. Holly was so thankful she promised to visit the turtles down at the beach every day.