A Fishy Ending
Looking out through the bars of the door, Maddox saw an octopus disappearing round a corner. So the shark had been right. Octopuses were tricky!
Glancing quickly around his prison, Maddox could see a small hole in the wall. He broke off bits of the rotten wood and before long could stick his head out. The shark was nowhere to be seen.
Making the hole bigger was easy, and before long Maddox wriggled through, and floated down to the sandy seabed.
There was no time to search for his fishing rod so he decided to make a dash for freedom. It wasn’t easy hurrying through water and he moved at a snail’s pace.
He kept looking back over his shoulder, expecting to see sharp teeth coming after him, but the shark and the gold were nowhere to be seen.
Before long, the water became shallow and Maddox could hear the waves breaking on the beach in front of him.
At last, his head broke out of the water and moments later he stumbled ashore soaking wet. He flopped exhausted into his fisherman’s chair, with seawater dripping from his clothes and shut his eyes.
Somewhere in the distance he could hear a bell ringing. At first, it was so faint that he took no notice, but the ringing seemed to get louder until he could ignore it no longer.
It was the little bell on the end of his fishing rod!
He opened his eyes and jumped out of his chair, snatching up his rod.
With amazement, Maddox realised his clothes were completely dry. His socks and boots were still on his feet, and his ice cream lay melted on the sand.
His mum called out, “At last Maddox! That looks like a whopper!”
Maddox realized he’d been dreaming. He must have dozed off. All the excitement with the shark and the gold was just in his imagination.
But none of that mattered now.
Maddox had hooked a gigantic Sea Bass and his fishing rod was bent double under the strain.
Some other fisherman had appeared from nowhere. They stood around Maddox as he fought the fish, shouting words of encouragement.
This was Maddox’s moment of glory. People were gathering on the beach and taking photos.
As Maddox pulled the huge Sea Bass from the water, one thing was sure, there was going to be a feast tonight and Sea Bass was on the menu.