The Big Red Kite Old Jack's Boat

Go on, Salty.

# Come with me, we're off to the sea to where I used to play

# Looking back when I was a boy and the fun we had each day

# Over the cobbles and through the streets, playing in the sun

# Friends to meet with games and treats, adventures just begun

# Stories from a magical world washed in by the sea

# Meet the rock pool creatures there, it's amazing what you see

# Looking back when I was a boy

# Shrimps and starfish Crabs and snails

# In twinkly Rockpool Tales

OLD JACK LAUGHS

# Those lovely Rockpool Tales. #

Oh, hello.

Salty and I, we've just been having a bit of a tidy up

on the Rainbow today.

Look at it.

Not too keen on tidying up, are you, Salty?

She makes most of the mess anyway.

Oh, would you believe that?

Look at this. Look at this.

This is my beautiful red kite.

Me and my dad made this together when I was a boy.

Yeah.

And we'd take it down to the beach every time it was windy,

which happens quite a lot in Staithes, doesn't it, Salty?

And we'd fly it.

Do you know what?

Finding this, it reminds me of a story.

It's a swoopy, divey, glidey sort of a story.

And it all happened when I was a boy

in a twinkly time long, long ago.

You know, I used to run down to play on the beach as often as I could.

Meeting up with my best friends,

Little Ernie and Little Sailor Sue.

It was particularly windy on the beach that day

and the kite was flying really well.

Ernie asked if he could try flying the kite himself

so I passed him the strings and said we could hold it together.

But Ernie, he wanted to fly the kite on his own.

"Don't worry, Jack," he said, and he grabbed the strings.

The kite swooped lower and lower until, with a sudden whoosh,

it came down.

Crunch. Oh, dear. Huh.

"We'd better go and see if it's all right," suggested Sue.

We followed the strings all the way across the beach

to where the kite had crashed

and we saw the tail had fallen into a rock pool nearby.

And as we gazed deep down into the glittery waters,

a magical world appeared before our eyes.

One windy day, Sally the Starfish and Belinda the Blenny

were playing together in the seaweed when they heard a long, snaily sigh.

SNAIL SIGHS

It came from Sidney the Snail.

He was sitting on his favourite rock

gazing up through the water at the sky above.

"Hi, Sidney," said Sally.

"What are you looking at?"

Sidney sighed again.

"Look," he said.

They all looked up and there, high above them, flew a beautiful kite.

"I've been watching that big red bird

"fly in the sky all morning," he explained.

"So, why the big sigh?" asked Belinda.

Sidney sniffed.

"Because I would really love to fly in the sky, too."

"But you're a snail," said Sally.

"I know," replied Sidney.

"And that means I'm stuck down here on this rock."

"Maybe not," said Sally, with a big grin,

and she dashed off.

Well, what she brought back would've made your whiskers whiffle, Salty.

Buster the Crab, Andrew the Anemone and Sheena the Shrimp

were all helping Sally to push a strange-looking machine.

Sidney slid slowly over to take a closer look.

"What is it?" he asked.

"It's a rock pool rocket," Sally proudly announced.

"You get in the seat at that end.

"I pull on the stretchy seaweed at this end

"and, whoosh, you rocket into the sky."

Sidney's eyes lit up.

He was going to fly.

He slithered into the seat of the rock pool rocket,

shrinking back in his shell for safety

until just his eyes were peeping out.

Then Sally pulled back on the stretchy seaweed.

And Andrew started the countdown.

"Five, four, three, two, one," he shouted.

Sally let go.

"Twang!" went the seaweed as it snapped in two.

"Boing!" went Sidney as he whooshed through the water.

"Whee!" he cried.

Oh... But, oh, dear.

Oh, dear. Instead of going upwards towards the sky,

the broken seaweed sent Sidney

whizzing across the sandy bed of the rock pool.

With an "ooh" and an "ouch" and an "o-o-o-ooh",

he bounced over and over like a pebble

until he landed with a squishy bump in a soft clump of seagrass.

"Are you all right, Sidney?" asked Belinda

with a worried look at the others.

Sidney blinked and smiled.

"Yes, I am.

"Can we try that again?"

Sally shook her head and held up the snapped seaweed.

"I'm afraid we can't. The rock pool rocket is broken."

"Oh, well," said Sidney.

"I suppose snails are just not supposed to fly.

-"Ho-ho-ho..."

-HE SIGHS

And he sighed another big snaily sigh.

And then Buster clicked and clacked over.

He had an idea.

"What if we all balance on top of each other like a tower

"with Sidney at the top?

"You'll be so high, you'll feel like you're flying."

So Andrew balanced on Buster, then it was Belinda's turn,

and then Sheena and then Sally, and right on top of the tower

was a thrilled Sidney.

Sidney's head popped out of the water's surface.

He could feel the sea breeze on his face.

"I'm almost flying," he chuckled

and he tried to stretch further towards the sky.

But Sidney's stretching started to make the tower wobble.

"Stay still, Sidney," called Buster from the bottom,

but it was too late.

The tower wobbled and wibbled one way and then the other

until, crash, down it came.

Well, everyone rushed over to where Sidney had landed

to check that he was all right.

"I'm sorry we couldn't make you fly," said Buster.

"Oh, that's all right, Buster," sighed Sidney.

"I suppose snails are just not meant to leave the ground."

And then a very strange thing happened.

Sidney the snail started to leave the ground.

He blinked a few blinks as he rose up

through the water of the rock pool.

The others all gazed at him in surprise.

Sidney felt a tugging on his tail and there he saw wrapped around it

was a long piece of red seaweed that was pulling him up.

He must've got tangled in it when he fell from the tower.

"That's funny-looking seaweed," said Sheena.

Of course, you know what Sidney was tangled in, don't you?

SALTY BARKS

That's right, Salty.

It wasn't seaweed.

It was tail of the kite.

"Whoo!" called Sidney as he was pulled higher.

"Quick, everyone!" shouted Buster. "Grab him."

One by one, the friends grabbed hold of the kite tail

as it whizzed past them.

They tried to pull it back down, but it was too strong.

With an enormous plip, it pulled them all out of the water.

Sidney and his little friends then shot past a snoozing Reginald

with a great whoosh.

"Hi, Reginald," shouted Sidney.

"Flying snails?" yawned Reginald. "Whatever next?"

Well, in no time at all,

Sidney and his friends found themselves high up in the sky.

"Wow! Look!" laughed Sidney.

"I'm tangled in the tail of the big red bird.

"Whee-whee-whee-whee!

"Look at the view. Whoo!"

Well, the kite swooped and dived this way and that.

Sidney was having great fun, but his friends couldn't hold on forever.

"We need to get back home," called Sally.

So, Sheena the Shrimp nibbled away at the kite's tail

until Sidney was untangled.

"The next time we swoop over the rock pool, let go," Buster shouted.

The kite did one last dive, it glided low over the rock pool,

and with a splash, splash, splosh,

the rock poolers let go and plopped back down into the water.

Sidney was the last to drop.

He took a final look at the amazing view

before floating gently down to the rock pool floor,

where he landed safe on his favourite rock.

Everyone crowded round Sidney.

"What an adventure," laughed Andrew as he bounced around.

"Let's fly again," shouted Sheena.

But Sidney, he said nothing.

He just blinked.

"Would you like to fly again?" Sally asked him.

Sidney shook his head and smiled.

"You know," he said, "it was fabulous to fly.

"I'll never forget it, but...

"I'm a snail and snails aren't really supposed to fly.

"Anyway, I like it in the rock pool with all my friends around

"watching the seaweed swish

"while I'm sitting here on my favourite rock."

He gave one last look up at the sky

and then carried on playing with his friends

-for the rest of the day.

-HE CHUCKLES

We left the rock pool

carrying the long wet tail of the kite in a big messy bundle.

We got the kite back onto the beach

and Ernie was very keen to fly it again.

He picked up the long strings while Sue and I

held the kite high before letting it fly up into the air.

The tail of the kite was really wet

and, as the kite flew, drops of water from the tail fell down.

It was just like rain.

"We will need to keep the kite flying

"until the tails are dry," said Sue.

And that's just what we did.

Flying and playing all afternoon until it was time for us to go home,

when the tide started to come in

and covered the rock pool

like a great seaweedy blanket.

Ha-ha! I have some lovely memories of flying this kite, I do.

It's a bit windy today.

You fancy going for a fly, do you, Salty, eh?

So why don't you join us for some more Rockpool Tales next time?

Bye-bye. Come on.