CHAPTER ONE

Sally falls into the sea

There was always a lot of dust in the shop, Sally spent so much of her time dusting and she wondered if old things gathered dust faster than new things. What a pity they didn't deal in new antiques then there wouldn't be so much cleaning to be done day after day. It was so boring.

But this morning as she was dusting she came across a porcelain vase with such a pretty pattern on it that she studied it for a long time fascinated by the way the pattern seemed to change with every different angle that she held the vase up to the light. She also noticed that it had a very thin opening at the top and she wondered what it had been designed for, because if it was to hold flowers, it would only be able to hold one at a time.

Sally then tried to peer into the vase and she thought she could see something inside although she was not sure what it could be, it seemed to have water in it, but not ordinary water, it was blue like the sea on a sunny day, but when she shook the vase she couldn't hear it sloshing about. It was very odd indeed.

So, closing one eye, she put the vase up to the other and was amazed to find that she could see through it like a telescope, but it was no ordinary telescope because although she lived nowhere near the coast she could see the sea stretching away to the horizon, it was calm and inviting and she began to feel disorientated and dizzy and then she felt herself falling and she let go of the vase and tried to stop herself, but she couldn't and she fell into the sea with a splash. The vase was no longer there, indeed the shop was no longer there, nothing was there except the sea and the sky.

'Well, isn't that strange?' Sally said to no-one in particular 'I can swim, I've never been able to swim and now it's easy'. She swam about in the sea going up and down with each swell in the warm water and felt totally comfortable.

After a while Sally saw a boat coming towards her. It was a very small, tatty looking boat, covered with barnacles and the sail had been made from an old shirt, the sleeves blowing out in front of it. Inside the boat was a cat energetically bailing water out with a very leaky bucket. 'What are you doing?' Sally asked, and the cat said 'Hello, what's your name? mine is Fritz, and in answer to your question, I'm throwing the water out of the boat because it is leaking and if it sinks it won't be a boat any more, it will be a submarine. Would you like to come aboard?'

Sally thought about it for a while and then said 'well, if your boat is going to sink I might as well stay here and keep swimming, but thank you for offering'. Fritz looked shocked 'you can swim' he said 'oh, you are lucky, I do wish that I could swim'.

'You mean you are out here in the sea in a leaking boat and you can't even swim?' Sally asked, 'what will you do if the boat sinks?'

'Oh, that's no problem, you silly girl, I have a cake of soap with me' Fritz replied disdainfully. Sally was very confused now, she said 'what has that got to do with it? You can't float around on a cake of soap.'

'You don't know much about being a sailor, do you?' said Fritz, 'if my boat sinks I'll take the soap out of it's bag and wash myself ashore'. He then started singing and continued to bail the water out with the bucket as the boat floated away.