The Octopus That Jumped

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Once upon a time long before there was a concrete jungle there was a
huge block of ice that covered the most of the ground as far as you
could see .

Deep down below the ice inside a cave there lived a purple headed
octopus with eight springy long tentacles . It was so dark and cold in
the cave that the octopus never came out . It just stayed in there
wishing that things were different .

All of a sudden one day the sun wafted through the dark cloudy sky and
for the very first time it began to shine brightly . In fact it was so
brilliant that the ice began to melt .

Down in the cave far below the purple headed octopus felt a change
.
The water was clear and for the first time the octopus came out from
the cave.

After a while the octopus surfaced and jumped out from the water and
tip toed across the ground .

There was now some grass and flowers growing all around .
The octopus was so happy to see colour and new life that it began to
pick bunches of them that it brought down below to its cave where it
started a garden

Day by day the garden grew until it was so big and beautiful that the
purple headed octopus wanted someone to share it with and so one day it
surfaced again and jumped out of the water onto the green grass .
The octopus raced along through the country singing and dancing, and
looking for a friend .

The first thing it met was a cow in a field ,
The octopus said ,
"Oh please be my friend and come with me to my garden under the sea
"
The cow chewed and mooed ,
"Oh I am so sorry I can't live under the sea . Oh no not me . But I can
be your friend "
The octopus thanked the cow and tip toed away down through the fields
where it met a sheep .
The Octopus said ,
" Please come with me to my garden live with me under the sea . Please
say you stay and be my friend "
The sheep seemed sad and went baa
"Oh I am very sorry but you see I cannot live under the sea . But I
will be your friend . Would you live with me "?
The octopus looked away and then it lifted its purple head to
say,
"I've been making a garden for a year and a day and its there where I
want to be . I'm at home in the sea but there's no one but me in a cave
so empty and clean. "
2

While the octopus spoke the sheep fell asleep as the sun ran away from
the sky . In the dark of the night the octopus wept as the moon shone
down
from above .

An owl on the branch of a Blackthorn tree very wisely said with a hoot
,
"Oh Octopus tell me why do you cry , have you lost your way to the sea
?"

The purple headed octopus looked up and wiped its tears away and
replied,
" I need some company in my cave under the sea and somebody that I can
share my garden with. "

After a while the owl gave a smile and said ,
"I know just the person you seek. Come now and fly with me to the
mountain top for up there is someone as purple headed as you. "
The Octopus jumped high and but no matter how hard it tried ,
it could not fly with the owl to the mountain top .
The octopus felt so ashamed because it could not fly that it made a
promise to never come back again to the surface .
So the purple headed octopus returned to the sea and slowly made its
way back down to its cave .

What a surprise the octopus had for therein the garden deep below the
sea was another lonely but beautiful purple headed octopus .
As they both found each other for the first time sea life just seemed
to appear from out of nowhere .

There was green frogs and alligators , clams opened up and all kinds of
fish appeared . Stingrays , dolphins and whales drifted by, and a
mermaid with the wink of an eye .

By Paul McCann

THE END