THE SOUNDS OF SALINITY

Bubbles rose from the rusted pipes of the organ as little yellow fins gently struck the keys in fluent succession. Skatie the small orange fish, a Sea Goldie, loved to play her organ. The grand concert was to take place that night, and Skatie wanted her performance to be perfect.

Her practice was interrupted by the sound of crying from the other side of the theatre. She could see Tobie the Seahorse getting pushed around by his older brother Crablie, and his mean friend Snottie the Purple Basslet.

'Leave me alone!' cried Tobie, trying to swim away, only to be grabbed and pulled back by Snottie. 'Oh no little bro, our fun ain't over yet!' chanted Crablie. Skatie wanted to help, but didn't know how too. Crablie and Snottie were bigger than her.

They laughed as they swam through the pink archway, out of the theatre and back down to the village. Tobie, still sniffling, swam to Skatie.

'Don't let those jellyfish brained guys get you down, Tobie. We need to practice for our big performance tonight.'

Tobie let out a whimper. 'Crablie broke my bell. I haven't anything to play!'

'Hey don't worry, we will figure something out. I'm sure we can find another instrument for you.' Said Skatie.

'In the pile?' Tobie asked, his eyes full of hope.

'Yup!' Skatie replied with a big smile.

'I hope I get something loud enough.'

'Let's go have a look!'

They swam through the pink coral archway, passed bright blue colonial stems and green sea leaves into the village. Clownfish, Starfish and Seahorses were chattering excitedly about the concert.

Skatie and Tobie swam to the edge of the village and down a drop into a pile of dumped human trash.

'There's bound to be something here!' Skatie exclaimed.

Tobie swam to the top of the pile while Skatie looked under a couple of small pots.

'Hey!' said Tobie, 'look at this!'

Tobie had a small white stick with furry ends.

'How are you going to play that?' asked Skatie.

'You'll see! Can you please bring those pots back with you?'

'Sure!' said Skatie.

Night had settled in and everyone had rushed to the theatre. Skatie was at her organ. Tobie was at his pots with his white stick. Ollie the Octopus had a thick string stretched in between two of his tentacles, and a school of sardines made up the choir.

Everyone played and sang as loud as they could.

'Thanks, but no thanks, we have enough, our seaweed and coral, don't mean to quarrel, but if you can, please stop.' Sang the sardines in perfect harmony.

As soon as they all stopped, everyone in the audience clapped and cheered. Crablie and Snottie were so impressed that they clapped too.

Skatie swam to Tobie and put her little yellow fin around him.

'Do you think they heard us, Skatie, the humans?'

'You know what Tobie? I really think they did.' said Skatie with a massive smile. 'I really think they did.'