Fanni Farkas
The Gilbert family lived in a small town in Australia. They did a lot of things together, for example eating, playing board games, etc. They also went fishing together. The kids found this activity really boring, but at least Mr. Gilbert enjoyed it. He was obsessed with fish. He had a whole room dedicated only to them. Judy, his daughter, was really upset about this because she had to share a room with her brother, Tom. She couldn’t get her own room because of the stupid fish room.
One day when they were sitting by the ocean coast waiting for a catch, something really strange happened. The water had seemed to turn into this kind of gold shade. Mr. Gilbert stood up from his chair to see what was going on, and then suddenly the fishing rod started to bend. Mr. Gilbert ran back to the rod and started pulling the catch out while Mrs. Gilbert, Judy and Tom were still looking at the water.
“Hey dad! These are a bunch of goldfish! Come see!” Tom shouted.
“That’s great, hon, but I have to get this catch!” Mr. Gilbert said through his gritted teeth.
“This has got to be a big one!”
Tom shrugged and looked at the water again.
“Oh no! We can’t let this one get away! Judy, give me the net!” Mr. Gilbert shouted. He waas sweating from the weight of the catch.
Judy quickly gave her dad the net, which he tossed in the water. Mrs. Gilbert and Tom ran there rapidly, and then they all started pulling the net, but it was way too strong. Judy, who was pulling the net in the front, accidentally slipped and fell in the water. When she saw what was in the net she gasped and let all the oxygen out of her lungs, so she had to come up to the surface. When she saw that no one had noticed that she fell in the water she went back down to get a better look at the catch. It was half human, half goldfish. It was a mermaid! Judy couldn’t believe her eyes. Without hesitation she swam to the net and let the mermaid out. The mermaid had gorgeous brown hair floating around her and a shimmering gold tail. She was beautiful. She hugged Judy and then placed her index finger in front of her mouth and smiled. Then she swam away and Judy went back up to the surface. Her mom was screaming and everyone was panicking about the catch that got away and about how Judy was in the water, but the girl didn’t even pay attention to them, because she was shocked by the happenings. When Judy got out of the water she sat down on the shore with her family around her.
“You won’t believe what I saw!” she said.
“What? What was dad about to catch?” urged Tom.
“It was a…” suddenly Judys tongue became a knot. She couldn’t speak. It was because the mermaid cursed her not to tell anyone, because mermaids are a secret. They don’t like to reveal themselves to humans. So from now on, when Judy tried to say the word “mermaid” out loud, her tongue turned into a knot. And that’s why you need to keep the secrets you are told.