Once upon a time there was a tiny bubble. The bubble wasn’t  quite sure where it had originally come from, but what it did know was that one minute it was happily rising up towards the surface with all it’s friends, when along came a little black water spider who took hold of the tiny bubble and took it deep down into the pond and placed it carefully under a leaf.

“Why have you put me under this leaf?” asked the tiny bubble.

“For me to breathe under the water in the safety of my leaf.” said the spider in a watery voice.

The tiny bubble was sad. It’s friends had all gone up to the surface by now so all it had to talk to was the water spider who had already gone over to the other side of her leaf.

“I shall make an escape on my own.” said the tiny bubble as it thought and thought until it came up with a plan.

Then, just as it was thinking, a minnow came along.

“I must ask this minnow to help me.”  thought the tiny bubble.

“Hello there minnow!”  it called out as the minnow passed close by.

“Why look!” exclaimed the minnow as it rolled it’s eyes at the tiny bubble. “Here’s someone who looks as if they need a push to send them on their way.”

“If you don’t mind?” said the tiny bubble as the fish nudged with it’s long snout and soon the bubble slipped up around the side of the leaf and started on it’s way up towards the surface.

The tiny bubble thanked the minnow and was just congratulating itself on it’s clever escape when suddenly:

SQUISH!

The tiny bubble stopped.

Looking above it, it could see a piece of pond weed.

“Bother!” exclaimed the tiny bubble. “And just when I thought that I was on my way to meet my friends on the surface. How WILL I escape this time?”

Just then, it saw a newt.

“Yum Yum!” mumbled the newt as it swished it’s long tail and swam towards the bubble. It sounded as if it was in the middle of eating a large piece of treacle pudding “What a fine looking tiny bubble! Now that will save me taking a long trip to the surface if I gobble it up now!”

The tiny bubble was frightened. It didn’t want to be gobbled up by the mumbling newt, but could not think of an escape plan.

The tiny bubble rocked itself against the pond weed, but try as it might, it just could not get free. All of a sudden another mumbly voice sounded from behind, this one sounding as if it was talking though a peanut butter sandwich.

“Mine I think!”

The owner of the voice as a long brown and black newt that swished past the tiny bubble and blocked the path of the other newt and the two of them started to argue.

“I saw it first, therefore it’s mine”

“Oh no you didn’t, I saw it first...” and so on.

Soon there was a lot of tail swishing and without thinking, the two of them accidentally bumped into the pond weed..

“I’m free!” cried the tiny bubble as it rolled out from under the pond weed and started going up towards the surface, which was now not a long way off; but when it thought it was nearly there...

SQUISH!

The tiny bubble stopped.

“Bother!” exclaimed the tiny bubble as this time it was stuck fast underneath a lily leaf; and a big one at that!

Once again the tiny bubble was in need of a plan. It thought and thought then realised that something was very odd. This lily leaf had a big bump in it that was stopping the tiny bubble from rolling to the edge and escaping.

Looking up at the leaf, it could see the shape of a big frog, sitting on the top and making the big bump in the leaf.

“Mr Frog!” called out the tiny bubble in it’s loudest possible voice; hoping that the frog on the top of the leaf would hear.

“Croak?” said the frog, somewhat puzzled. “I heard my name but I cannot see who it was who called.

“It is I, Mr Frog. I am a tiny bubble and I am stuck under the lily leaf you are sitting on. I wonder if you would be so kind as to move over to the other side of the leaf, so that I will be able to make my escape.”

The frog didn’t answer at first, but instead let out a loud CROAK as it cleared it’s throat which shook the leaf with the tiny bubble underneath.

“Here I am and here I sit. I like it this side so here I will stay until... next year I think.”

The tiny bubble felt sad. If only the selfish frog would move just a little, it could make it’s escape.

Just then as the tiny bubble was deep in thought, along came a big fish with two large black eyes.

“Oh my, oh my!” trembled the tiny bubble as the fish slowly came towards it. Now there was really no escape and no time to think of a plan either. It just had to be brave.

“Mr. Fish!” the tiny bubble called out in it’s clearest, loudest voice.

“Carp.” glooped the fish and stayed still in the water, slowly moving it’s huge fins.

“Pardon?” said the tiny bubble as it may have misheard what the fish said.

“Carp” said the fish again, this time following the word with a loud GLOOP!

The tiny bubble was to afraid to ask the big fish to repeat the word for a third time as it would have seemed rude, so he pretended that he had understood.

“I see.” said the tiny bubble. “I was just wondering if you could help me out from under this lily leaf. You see, there is a big frog sitting on the top who says he’s going to stay there until next year and won’t move.”

The big fish looked at the tiny bubble and rolled it’s big round eyes, then nudged it along the leaf with it’s nose until it was right at the edge.

“Thank you!” cried the tiny bubble as the long smooth back of the big fish slipped silently past and disappeared back down into the depths of the pond.

Rocking itself from side to side one last time, the tiny bubble glided up around the edge of the leaf into the warm sunshine where all it’s friends were waiting around the petals of a beautiful white lily flower.