'Fizzie' The Purple Fuzzy Animal

When Tia turned two, her parents took her to the Condominium in the Caribbean. They went every year for vacation. The young child loved to play with her purple pails in the sand. But, she loved being in the water the most.

On Tia's sixth birthday in June, her parents took her to the Condominium to celebrate, which was earlier than their usual vacation trips in late August.          

They had a few friends over for a light lunch and celebrated with a lovely chocolate cake with purple flowers on it. When the celebration was over, Tia begged her parents to take her to play in the water. She wanted to play in the small waves and pretend she was a dolphin. Tia loved the dolphins and often saw them flipping and chasing each other in the distance.

Her mom Dee cleaned up the bits of cake from the floor and put away the dishes. She said to Tia, "dad and I just need a minute, we will take you soon."

It seemed like a long time before Dee and Randy were ready to take their daughter to play in the water, she became quite impatient. Tia called out, "mama, can we go now?" Dee grabbed the beach towels, Tia gathered her pails, one was large with white handles and dark purple and the other was small, a light purple with yellow handles. And papa brought some snacks.

Mama spread the towels on the warm soft sand, she settled down to read her favourite book. Papa sat beside mama for a moment, then he took Tia's large pail and filled it with sand while Tia fetched some water with the small pail. They made a large sand castle with four towers. Tia pretended to be a princess and her papa was the king.

The tide suddenly came in and washed away their castle.

Papa took Tia to play in the small waves, pulling her around on her little tube which was clear with pretty purple ponies all around it. Tia had had enough of the waves and wanted to sit with mama for a while. Papa and Tia joined mama, she sat on mama's towel and ate a banana and some crackers. Papa laid on his towel and fell asleep, soaking up the sun, while Dee continued to read.

Tia wandered off a short distance, mama called out, "do not go too far baby."

The little girl saw something fuzzy and purple close by, and slowly walked over to it. She thought it looked like someone's stuffed toy. As she got closer she heard it say, "water, I need water please." Tia took her pail and filled it with water, she took it to the purple fuzzy thing, she could now see that it was an animal. It was the size of a baby brown bear, but it's ears were long like a bunny rabbit's and it's tail was flat like a beaver's but much longer and fuzzier. It had big eyes like a horse, but they were the colour of the ocean. The animal drank some of the water, then asked Tia to pour some over it's body. Within minutes of the water touching it, the animal arose from it's place in the sand, it did not have legs like a bear or a horse or beaver, but flippers like a dolphin which it used to move itself along the sand and back into the water, with Tia following close behind.

Tia climbed onto the animal's back, took hold of it's long ears, as it began to swim between the tiny waves. Tia laughed out with excitement and said, "faster! go faster!" The animal glide through the water gracefully, like a dolphin.                        

It suddenly dove under the waves, Tia holding steadily to it's ears, it's long tail slapping the water propelling them forward with lightening speed.

She was not afraid.

The gentle animal spoke to Tia, it said, "everything is different down here, it is magical, you are free to do and be whatever you want." Tia did feel different, and she understood everything the animal was saying.

A large Humpback whale swam by with it's baby beside her, it looked at Tia and appeared to have a big smile. The fuzzy animal slowed down it's pace for a moment, watching the whales as they swam by. Tia waved to them, they disappeared deeper into the ocean. Tia gently yanked the animal's long ears and hollered, "go fizzie!" The name popped out of her mouth as bubbles burst out all around them. Diving up and down and in and out of the waves, with pods of dolphins following them, chirping, diving, prancing, heads nodding, encouraging them to keep moving.

Fizzie making circles. Tia loving it all.

Something was glowing in the distance, beckoning them onwards. It was a beautiful golden castle with fish of all colours and sizes swimming around it.

Fizzie enters the castle.

Laying in what looked like a large shell of an oyster, were two purple fuzzy animals that looked like Fizzie, but bigger. Fizzie calls out to them, it sounds like a whistle Tia blew at her Birthday party. The two animals came close to Fizzie and they exchanged whistles. One of them slapped it's tail down creating a big wave, sending Fizzie and Tia whirling in an upward direction. As the whirling slowed, Tia could see hundreds of little purple fuzzy animals. They all looked like Fizzie. They started whistling, it looked like they were dancing and the tune they whistled sounded like 'Happy Birthday.' Tia never felt so happy before. The purple animals seem to know that.

All the other purple animals suddenly disappeared, so did the castle as Fizzie darted through the clear blue water. Dolphins all around them, guiding them to the top of the water and in the direction of the sandy Island. Tia could see her mama and papa. Her mama reading and her papa, asleep next to her. Tia calls out to them in an excited way. She started to say, "this is Fizzie, my new frie"........ When she turned around to point to him, Fizzie was no where to be seen. She began to call out. "Fizzie!, Fizzie!, where are you?" Her mama and papa asked, "who is Fizzie, honey?"     Tia looked at her parents with tears in her eyes and a frown of confusion. She said, "He is my new fuzzy friend, he took me down to the bottom of the ocean and showed me his castle, with all his family, and they whistled happy birthday to me." "What does Fizzie look like?" her papa asked. But Tia did not hear him; she ran to the place where she first saw the fuzzy animal. He was not there. She went close to the water, stood in one position staring as far as she could into the deep.

He was not there.

The sun was going down. Dee and Randy gathered their things. Tia was too upset and did not want to go. She kicked her little pail as she yelled out one more time for Fizzie.

Tia could not find her big pail. Mama said, "I am sorry baby, it could have floated away with the waves." She gently took Tia by the hand and led her into the condo.

After eating a small portion of her supper, Tia went to her room to wash up and get ready for bed. There in the corner of her room stood her big purple pail. Tia was feeling sad so she did not care that the pail was there. After she had her bath and had settled into bed, she thought she heard the pail shake. Tia got out of bed, slowly walked over to the pail and peeked inside. Tia took a deep breath and held it in with her mouth wide open.

In her pail, was some purple fur, just like Fizzie's.