Lola’s Seaweed Stage

“The seaweed screen is folding again!” Lola said, as her paper-thin puppet disappeared from view.

She tugged the wide green sheet flat. A little current slipped through the sandy clearing and tucked one edge over the other. The puppet vanished behind a leafy fold.

“Oh, please stay open,” Lola whispered.

Lola was a young octopus with eight busy arms and a head full of plans. She had invited all her neighbors to a shadow-puppet show beside the sea grass. She had cut tiny shapes from pale shells: a long-necked seahorse, a round puffer fish, and a crab with legs as crooked as noodles. She had even made a paper-thin jellyfish from a scrap of seaweed.

Her neighbors had started gathering in the clearing. Brindle the crab scooted into the front row. Nori the little fish wiggled beside a smooth rock, and old Tumble the turtle settled down with a happy sigh.

“Is it starting soon?” asked Nori.

“It is,” said Lola. She smiled bravely, though the screen folded again, hiding the jellyfish. “As soon as I get my stage to behave.”

She tried holding the screen with one arm and moving the seahorse with another. The current pressed the seaweed inward. One corner flapped over her head like a hat.

Brindle chuckled. “Your stage is trying to wear you!”

Lola giggled, but she lowered the screen and looked around. The sandy clearing was just right. The sea grass swayed beside it, making stripes of shade on the ground. The neighbors were ready. Her puppets were ready. Only the screen needed help.

Lola picked up a smooth pebble and placed it at one corner. The screen stayed open for a moment, then the other side folded shut.

“Hmm,” she said. “One pebble is not enough.”

She glanced at the shells scattered near the sea grass. Some were straight and flat. Others curved like little cups. Lola’s eyes brightened as she reached for two of the curved ones.

“Maybe the answer is hiding right here,” she said.

The neighbors leaned closer, and Lola began testing her idea.

Lola set one curved shell at each side of the seaweed screen. She turned the shells so their rounded backs pressed against the leafy edges.

The screen stayed open.

Lola let go. The current slid through the clearing, swayed the sea grass, and nudged the screen. The shells held firm.

“It worked!” cried Nori.

“Let’s see if it works during the show,” said Lola. She scooted behind the screen, where the moonlight made clear shapes from her pale puppets. “Everyone ready?”

Brindle tapped his claws together. Tumble nodded. Nori swished her tail.

Lola lifted the seahorse puppet. Its shadow stretched tall across the green screen. She bobbed it up and down, pretending it was looking for a snack.

“Have you seen my seaweed?” the seahorse asked in a wobbly voice.

The neighbors laughed. Lola brought out the puffer fish. It puffed up, then shrank down. Next came the crooked-legged crab, marching sideways across the screen.

Then Lola had an idea. She had more arms than puppets, and plenty of arms to spare. She slipped a puppet onto one arm, then another, then another. With her other arms, she held the screen’s lower edge steady and guided the puppets into place.

“Here comes the grand parade!” she announced.

A tall seahorse pranced past a bobbing puffer fish. A tiny crab marched in circles. The jellyfish floated above them, while a little shell fish bounced along behind. Lola moved several shadows at once, and they all seemed to dance to the swaying sea grass.

But the crab puppet caught on a wrinkle. It spun around and bumped the seahorse. The puffer fish seemed to sneeze, and the jellyfish wobbled upside down.

Lola paused. Then she made every puppet wobble, too.

The neighbors burst into laughter. Even Tumble gave a low, delighted chuckle.

Lola’s cheeks warmed with pride. The shells held the screen open, and her many arms made the parade tumble along together. She bowed behind the stage as the puppets danced their final circle.

“Encore!” called Brindle.

Lola peeked around the screen. “Only if you join the show!”

Brindle was the first to answer. He stood beside the screen and waved both claws. His shadow stretched wide, then pinched small as he tiptoed closer to the light.

“I’m a very fancy crab,” he announced, turning sideways across the sand.

Nori joined in with a wiggly fish shadow. She swished her tail one way, then the other, and made her shadow loop around the dancing seahorse.

Tumble lifted one flipper. His shadow rose slowly over the screen like a great, round hill. He moved it just a little, and the hill gave a friendly wave.

Lola showed them how to stand where the moonlight reached the screen. Soon the whole clearing was full of moving shapes. A sea grass shadow leaned and straightened. Brindle’s claws made silly antlers. Nori’s tail drew a curvy path through the parade.

Nobody hurried. The shadows took their time, bobbing and swaying while the current brushed the seaweed screen. The two curved shells kept it open, just as Lola had hoped.

At last, Nori made her fish shadow swim into a shell-shaped cave. Brindle’s crab shadow followed, marching backward. Tumble’s flipper waved once more from the edge of the screen.

“Good night, parade,” Lola said.

The neighbors clapped softly, patting their fins, claws, and flippers together. Then they began to head home across the sand. Nori swam alongside Tumble, and Brindle promised to practice his fancy sideways walk before the next show.

“You made a wonderful stage, Lola,” said Tumble.

“Those shells helped,” Lola replied. She gave each one a grateful pat. “And so did all of you.”

When the clearing was quiet again, Lola gathered her little puppets and set them in a neat row beside the sea grass. She left the seaweed screen propped open. It made a small, leafy roof above her, and the curved shells rested like two cupped hands at its sides.

Lola curled into the warm sand beneath the screen. The sea grass swayed nearby, and pale moonlight rested on the shells. She thought of the seahorse, the backward-marching crab, and all the neighbors who had danced together.

The seaweed lifted and settled with the slow current, while Lola tucked her arms close and let the quiet of the underwater night wrap around her.