As they played they went further and further out to sea without Sally even noticing and soon they were in very deep water. Sally's swimming improved with every minute and it wasn't long before she could follow the dolphins right down to the sea bed where she saw the most amazing creatures, starfish and sea horses and eels and rays, and fish that were the most incredible colours and shapes. Some of them had the funniest faces and Sally couldn't help but laugh which caused them to frown at her, making their faces even more curious and funny.

She found herself comparing them with everyday objects that she had seen before she came to this strange world. There was one fish that looked like a smiling helicopter and another that wobbled like a jelly. Some had very aggressive looking faces but appeared to be very mild mannered, and she saw a fish that looked just like a vacuum cleaner and was swimming slowly along the bottom as if it were cleaning the floor. Another looked just like a piece of seaweed and Sally didn't even realise that it was alive until she got very close to it and it darted away from her giving her quite a start.

Then as two sea horses drifted by she heard one say to the other 'I only realised how fast I could go when the ugly shark chased me, before that I would never have got involved in a race'.

'You can talk' Sally exclaimed, and she was immediately amazed with the fact that she could also talk, even though she was under water. The sea horses darted away with surprise and then circled Sally cautiously. 'We can talk' one of them said 'but we've never seen a fish like you that could talk'.

'I'm not a fish' Sally laughed 'I'm a little girl, and you two are sea horses aren't you'.

'Not just any sea horses' one of them said 'this is Sea Orchid, the greatest racing sea horse of all time, he's never been beaten'.

'I'm just an ordinary sea horse really' Sea Orchid said shyly 'I happen to have won a couple of races, that's all'. Sally was surprised and said 'Do you really have sea horse races then?' and Sea Orchid's friend, whose name was Sapphire said 'oh yes, you must come to the races if you've never been before it's the best fun anyone can have. We're going to the races now, would you like to come with us?'.

Sally accepted the invitation and off they went together. They soon met a lot of other sea horses and there was thousands of fish and prawns and shrimps and an amazing variety of sea creatures gathered to watch the sea horse races.

They were rather disappointing to Sally, about thirty or forty sea horses with shrimps riding on their backs swam across a course marked by seaweed while all the fish and other creatures watching flapped about cheering and laughing. It was impossible to tell who was winning because the sea horses didn't all seem to follow the same course and Sally couldn't even see where the race was going to finish, but that didn't dampen the enthusiasm.

Sally never found out if Sea Orchid won because before the race finished the sea started to swirl like a whirlpool. Instead of being dragged down however, Sally found herself being pulled upwards until she was lifted right out of the water and up into the clear blue sky. She felt very disorientated and suddenly she was back in the antique shop looking into the stem of the vase.

Her mother was saying 'Sally, do get on with the dusting dear, you'll never get it done at this rate'. Sally shook her head to clear it, then put the vase down and continued with the dusting. 'Was that a dream?' she wondered, but it seemed so real that she picked up the vase again and peered into it.

Bernie peered back at her 'I told you it was a dream' he said 'now I'm awake and you don't exist anymore'.