The Lost Property Turtle: The Mermaid's Comb 🧜‍♀️🐢 Kids Bedtime Stories

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[00:03:36] Now, tonight we have a beautiful story.

[00:03:40] It's all about Michelle in Harmony Cove.

[00:03:44] Do you remember him?

[00:03:45] He's in charge of the lost property there, otherwise known as the Lost Property Turtle.

[00:03:50] Well, he's had a great day.

[00:03:54] He's been watching a clam show and spectating the seahorse races, and now he's off to a party.

[00:04:01] Ah, when he comes across a weepy mermaid.

[00:04:04] The poor girl has lost her comb.

[00:04:07] Hopefully, Michelle has something in his box of lost things to help her.

[00:04:13] Now, before we begin, jump into bed, lie back and relax.

[00:04:19] That's it.

[00:04:20] Take some nice breaths in and let them out.

[00:04:29] Have a little stretch, a little wriggle and a jiggle, and again breathe in and breathe out.

[00:04:39] Lovely.

[00:04:41] Now, turn over, get into your most comfortable spot, and get ready to listen.

[00:04:49] This is The Lost Property Turtle and the Mermaid's Comb by Jane Thomas.

[00:05:02] The sun was just beginning to set on Harmony Cove,

[00:05:07] and Michelle, the lost property turtle, was tidying up his stand and shutting up shop for the day.

[00:05:14] It had been one of those absolutely perfect summer days, when there is just enough breeze to keep everyone cool in the warm sun,

[00:05:25] but not so much that the visitors had to spend the day brushing sand off themselves.

[00:05:31] The waves had been big enough at one end of the beach to let the starfish try out surfing on their flip-flop surfboards,

[00:05:39] and there had been no waves at all at the other end of the beach,

[00:05:42] so seals and seagulls and lazy limpets had been able to float on their backs and stare up at the sky.

[00:05:50] The few white puffs of clouds that had passed over had transformed themselves into funny shapes for everyone to look at.

[00:05:59] So, at times, the whole beach was mesmerized by a turtle flying through the air,

[00:06:05] and then a seal balancing a ball on its nose, and then a dolphin leaping through a hoop.

[00:06:14] One of those little aeroplanes with a banner trawled behind it had flown by in the middle of the afternoon

[00:06:22] with Happy Birthday Sasha written in giant letters,

[00:06:26] and a group of crabs who had set up camp near the cliffs leapt up and down and snapped their claws

[00:06:34] and cheered a tiny crab who blushed with happiness and surprise as they sang special birthday songs to her

[00:06:42] and brought out a giant pink cake with five candles on top.

[00:06:49] Michel smiled as he piled up the buckets and spades that had been left behind by families heading back up the hill,

[00:06:57] away from the cove,

[00:06:59] slotting red buckets into green buckets into blue buckets

[00:07:03] and putting them safely behind his stall.

[00:07:07] He chuckled as he thought about the horse racing earlier that day

[00:07:12] and how everyone had laughed as Bill's commentary echoed around the cove.

[00:07:19] Seahorse racing, that is.

[00:07:22] The day had started with a clam show.

[00:07:25] Giant clams had been brought to the edge of the cove

[00:07:29] and lay in the shallow waters, open wide and showing off their gleaming insides.

[00:07:36] Swirls and ripples of green and blue or red and orange or purple and pink shone in the turquoise waters,

[00:07:45] and all the creatures had taken it in turns to swim over and look down at the display.

[00:07:53] Best in show had been given to a clam so large that it was wider than even an albatross's wingspan,

[00:08:01] and inside the clam's colours were a soft mint green speckled all over with spots that looked like dark blue ink.

[00:08:12] Everyone agreed the clam was a worthy winner,

[00:08:15] and he had happily gone home with his prize pearl safely tucked away inside.

[00:08:21] But the clam show was just a side event really.

[00:08:26] Everyone had come to watch the seahorse racing.

[00:08:30] The clams acted as jumps,

[00:08:32] so the seahorses raced along the bottom with tiny coral crabs riding them

[00:08:38] and steering them around the horse and guiding them to leap over the huge clams.

[00:08:44] The trick was not to let the seahorses get distracted by the colourful insides,

[00:08:50] which happens a lot more than you might think.

[00:08:53] So quite often they would disappear for minutes at a time into the shining interiors

[00:08:58] to admire the walls that looked as if they were draped with emeralds and diamonds.

[00:09:04] You could hear the bubbled voices of the coral crabs as they urged their seahorses to get back out onto the course.

[00:09:13] And finally, with a cheer from the crowd, this would happen and the race would be on again.

[00:09:20] Bill the seagull had flown above the racing seahorses and commentated,

[00:09:26] letting everyone on the beach know what was happening.

[00:09:30] And here comes Sally, he would screech.

[00:09:33] She's there! She's in the lead! She's gonna win!

[00:09:37] No, she's gone into the red clam.

[00:09:39] In the red clam!

[00:09:41] Her coral crab is jumping and pulling and persuading, but she's having none of it!

[00:09:47] It's Alfie who's taking the lead now.

[00:09:50] Alfie's there! He's going for it!

[00:09:52] He's round in the last bend.

[00:09:55] He'll get there, ladies and gentlemen, just one more.

[00:09:58] No, no, there he goes.

[00:10:01] Into the turquoise clam.

[00:10:03] His coral crab is beside himself.

[00:10:07] And so it had gone on, with the crowd on the edges of their towels for the whole afternoon,

[00:10:14] as the junior seahorses raced, and then the seniors, and then the ones brought out of retirement.

[00:10:22] They were allowed a five-minute tea break in the middle of the course, just to keep their strength up.

[00:10:28] Afterwards, the giant clam stayed around for a while so others could try out the race course.

[00:10:35] So starfish, guided by hermit crabs, and jellyfish, led by limpets, had charged this way and that,

[00:10:43] giggling and bumping into each other as they pretended to be seahorses dashing towards victory.

[00:10:51] Yes, thought Michel to himself, as he folded up yet another picnic blanket that had been left behind.

[00:10:58] It had been a very successful beach day.

[00:11:03] He wandered down the beach to have a quick dip in the sea,

[00:11:08] the sea that was now all dappled in orange and pink from the setting sun,

[00:11:13] and floated on his back, looking at the sky and trying to find the first star of the night.

[00:11:22] And there it was, twinkling far out to sea, a tiny dash of silver lighting up the sky.

[00:11:34] Starlight, star bright, first star I see tonight, I wish I may.

[00:11:43] I wish I might.

[00:11:45] Have this wish I wish tonight, Michel whispered to himself.

[00:11:52] He closed his eyes, squeezing them extra hard to be absolutely sure there was no cheating,

[00:12:01] and wished his little wish as hard as he could.

[00:12:06] As he drifted back to shore and pulled himself out, Bill came and landed next to him.

[00:12:15] Saw your wishing out there again, Michel, said the seagull, nudging him.

[00:12:20] Go on, tell me, what's the wish?

[00:12:23] It was a game they played almost every night.

[00:12:27] Bill would ask and Michel would refuse.

[00:12:31] Nope, he said firmly, rubbing himself dry with his towel.

[00:12:37] Not tonight, my lips are sealed.

[00:12:41] He drew his flipper across his mouth and mimed locking a key and throwing it away.

[00:12:48] All the way back up the beach, Bill nudged Michel with his wing and said, tell me, tell me, tell me.

[00:12:56] And Michel just shook his head firmly and squeezed no sort of noises out through his closed mouth.

[00:13:03] That was until he suddenly let out an ow and an ouch, followed by an, oh my word, that hurts, and started hopping around on three of his four flippers.

[00:13:19] He and Bill backed away from the spot and peered at the sand, now lit by the moon above and a thousand stars that had danced their way into the sky.

[00:13:30] Slowly, carefully, being very gentle so as not to break whatever it was, Michel pulled the object out of the sand.

[00:13:39] It had lots and lots of spikes, all pointing in the same direction.

[00:13:47] And then, on the edge that held all the spikes together, there were dozens of perfect pearls gleaming in the moonlight.

[00:13:57] Michel turned it this way and that, and then pretended to jab it towards Bill, who backed away with a flap and a squawk.

[00:14:06] They had no idea what it was.

[00:14:11] Bill reached over and tentatively took it in his beak, seeing if it tasted of anything.

[00:14:18] He shook it, hard, but not a sound was made.

[00:14:24] Michel remembered the sea lion's harmonica he'd found before,

[00:14:29] and wondered if, perhaps, this strange spiked object might be another musical instrument.

[00:14:36] He held it in one flipper and ran another over it as if strumming a guitar, but only a few dull sounds came out of it.

[00:14:47] If it was a musical instrument, he thought to himself, it wasn't a very good one.

[00:14:54] Next, he took it and ran it along the beach, drawing fifty lines in the sand all perfectly evenly spaced, where the spikes left their marks.

[00:15:06] He drew the shape of one of the stars, five perfect points in the corners, but each of the lines copied fifty times over,

[00:15:15] so it ended up looking like a terribly fancy, terribly complicated drawing.

[00:15:22] Bill and Michel took it in turns to create more and more complicated pictures in the sand,

[00:15:29] with great swoops and swirls dancing in all directions, each line followed by fifty perfect copies that made the designs look even more wonderful.

[00:15:44] It was a mystery.

[00:15:46] Michel put the strange object into his stand, into the large box labelled Curious Curios,

[00:15:54] alongside various bits of metal and material that were just so odd he had no idea what they could be.

[00:16:02] Somebody always came along though and solved the mystery, which is how they were reunited with everything from tent pegs to bottle tops to forks.

[00:16:13] Forks?

[00:16:15] Could this strange new object be a complicated fork?

[00:16:19] He looked at it again and thought that if it was a fork, it was indeed a very strange one,

[00:16:26] because it had no handle and he'd never seen a fork with so many prongs before.

[00:16:34] He hung his towel on the line so that it could be dried in the midnight breezes and ready for another sunshiny day tomorrow,

[00:16:42] and started following Bill towards the seahorse racing after party.

[00:16:47] Every year, this takes place in the huge caves just around the headland to the south of Harmony Cove.

[00:16:55] Jellyfish climb up and hang themselves from the ceiling,

[00:16:59] lighting up the room with their dancing tentacles and flashing lights in all colours of the rainbow.

[00:17:06] Seals beat the drums in the back of the cave, and if they're very lucky, mermaids appear to sing the songs of the ocean.

[00:17:14] Mermaids, though, are terribly forgetful creatures, and it really is a bit hit and miss whether they'll turn up or not.

[00:17:22] They'd be mortified if they found out they'd forgotten, so nobody ever dares to remind them,

[00:17:27] which, of course, makes it harder and harder for them to remember.

[00:17:32] Bill and Michelle are making their way slowly over the rocks.

[00:17:36] Bill could, of course, fly, but instead he hops from perch to perch, keeping his friend company as they go.

[00:17:45] Michelle loves this next bit, because there's a sort of long, straight bit of rock that goes downhill,

[00:17:52] and is exactly like a slide, and even better, it's covered in a mass of soft green seaweed.

[00:18:00] He hops onto his back and whooshes down the slide, and Bill follows close behind.

[00:18:08] Flying is one thing, rushing down a seaweed slide is quite another.

[00:18:15] They'd just gone down the slide for a third time.

[00:18:18] Yes, they'd delayed getting to the party so they could clamber back up the rocks and have another go,

[00:18:24] when they heard a sniffing sound coming from around the corner.

[00:18:30] Bill and Michelle hopped and scuttled as fast as they could towards the sound, wondering who was upset and why.

[00:18:38] Then they saw her, a mermaid, her tail gleaming in all the colours of the sea,

[00:18:46] and she was sat perched on a rock, sniffing to herself and looking terribly sad.

[00:18:53] She greeted the turtle and the seagull with a weak smile, and then set back to crying.

[00:19:00] And it took a full five minutes before they finally understood the words she was squeezing out between sobs.

[00:19:09] She's lost her comb, said Michelle to Bill.

[00:19:14] She has.

[00:19:15] She's lost her comb, said Bill to Michelle.

[00:19:18] They repeated it a few times, and the mermaid nodded.

[00:19:23] And Bill and Michelle just looked at each other across her head, confused.

[00:19:30] Uh, excuse me, said Michelle at last, resting his flipper on the mermaid's tail and looking kindly into her face.

[00:19:40] But we aren't quite sure why it's making you so sad that you've lost your comb.

[00:19:49] The mermaid sniffed and blew her nose surprisingly loudly on a seaweed hanky.

[00:19:57] It's the day of the seahorse racing, you see.

[00:20:02] And I finally remembered to come and sing in the cave at the party.

[00:20:09] And I was so proud of myself for remembering.

[00:20:13] And I was so looking forward to singing.

[00:20:17] And, and…

[00:20:21] She disappeared again into a puddle of tears, and Michelle and Bill gave their best.

[00:20:28] We're here for you, looks, and waited for the explanation.

[00:20:34] I can't go without my comb, she wailed at last.

[00:20:41] Look at me, just look at me.

[00:20:46] Michelle and Bill had been doing that for a full ten minutes by now, but looked even more closely to see what it was all supposed to mean.

[00:20:54] My hair is such a terrible mess.

[00:21:02] I can't go on stage looking like this.

[00:21:07] I just can't.

[00:21:10] Now, Michelle is a turtle, and he likes to wax his shell from time to time.

[00:21:17] But that is as far as his fashion sense goes.

[00:21:21] And Bill is a seagull, who sometimes washes his feathers in fresh water just to get the salt off them and give them a whole new shine.

[00:21:29] But again, he has no use at all for a comb.

[00:21:34] They both look at the mermaid and just see an extraordinarily beautiful creature.

[00:21:43] Could you perhaps use another comb?

[00:21:48] Asked Michelle, trying his best to be helpful.

[00:21:51] Mermaids can't share their combs, she said between sniffs.

[00:22:02] We never have, for thousands of years.

[00:22:08] Each mermaid is given a comb when they come into the world, and they keep it their entire life.

[00:22:18] I've never, ever heard of a mermaid losing her comb.

[00:22:27] Right, said Bill.

[00:22:30] We'll help you find it.

[00:22:32] Just let us know when you lost it.

[00:22:35] The mermaid went back over her day.

[00:22:38] She had woken up in her coral cave, and she remembered having it then.

[00:22:44] She had visited her sisters, and they'd sat on the huge plump sofas of coral at the underwater hideaway,

[00:22:51] sipping tea from shells as they talked together, and she had definitely had it then.

[00:22:58] She had visited her mother and helped her polish her tail, and then gone into the garden with her father

[00:23:07] and helped him clip back the seaweed fronds that were starting to grow so tall they blocked the sunlight.

[00:23:15] She remembered having her comb with her then, because she had been sure to tuck her hair away carefully to not catch it in the clippers.

[00:23:26] Then she had swum to Harmony Cove and watched the seahorse racing, and she definitely had the comb with her then,

[00:23:35] because she had climbed out of the ocean onto a rock and tidied her hair.

[00:23:41] She wanted to dive inside the giant clams and look at their magical insides, and she'd wrapped her hair up tight so it didn't get caught.

[00:23:52] And then she'd started heading towards the party, and was about to go into the cave when she realized she'd lost her comb.

[00:24:04] Well done, said Michelle.

[00:24:07] This makes it much easier.

[00:24:10] Your comb must be somewhere in Harmony Cove.

[00:24:16] Or it could be inside her, began Bill.

[00:24:22] But Michelle held up a flipper to stop him and shook his head.

[00:24:27] It's somewhere in the cove, he repeated firmly, and started heading back the way he'd come.

[00:24:36] The others followed him, Bill catching up.

[00:24:41] It could be inside one of the giant clams, he whispered to Michelle, who agreed that yes, it could be,

[00:24:50] but it wouldn't do to upset the mermaid any more than she was already.

[00:24:55] And besides, they'd check the whole of Harmony Cove before they started sending out search parties for the clams.

[00:25:04] To be honest, he couldn't fully understand what was so important about the comb.

[00:25:10] The mermaid looked absolutely beautiful to him.

[00:25:14] But it was important to her, and that was what counted.

[00:25:20] All too often, Michelle had seen others dismiss something because they didn't think it mattered,

[00:25:27] when it really did matter to somebody else.

[00:25:31] If the mermaid was upset, he was going to help her even if it didn't make sense to him.

[00:25:38] They spent hours swimming back and forth in the cove.

[00:25:42] The sea was completely still, and the moon shone as brightly as it could, trying to help their efforts.

[00:25:51] Moonbeams reached down into the water, and the sand on the bottom glistened and gleaned in the soft light.

[00:26:00] But after searching every corner of the cove, they came up with nothing.

[00:26:09] If only I knew what we were looking for, sighed Michelle to Bill.

[00:26:17] It would make this so much easier.

[00:26:20] And so they asked the mermaid what exactly her comb looked like.

[00:26:26] And she started describing how it had fifty perfect white teeth all in a row, and how the handle was edged with a hundred pearls that she'd found over the years.

[00:26:40] And as she talked and conjured up images of the beautiful comb, Michelle realized, of course, that he knew exactly where it was.

[00:26:53] Bill realized at the same time, and hid his head beneath his wing to hide his embarrassment.

[00:27:01] Note to self, he whispered under his wing.

[00:27:04] Michelle, when trying to find something, always ask what it looks like first.

[00:27:12] Michelle dashed up the beach, pulling himself with his flippers as fast as he could, and disappeared into his lost property stand.

[00:27:22] He rummaged around in the curious curious box, and pulled out the object they'd found earlier that evening.

[00:27:31] Holding it ever so carefully, now that he knew how precious it was, he carried it over to the waiting mermaid, who had started sniffing again.

[00:27:43] He held up the comb, and she looked up, instantly bursting into tears, and somehow smiling, and laughing, and crying all at the same time.

[00:27:58] You clever turtle, she managed to blurt out.

[00:28:03] Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

[00:28:09] Michelle was on the point of telling her he'd actually been a bit of a fool, keeping the comb for over an hour while they'd searched without realizing that it was what they were after.

[00:28:21] But he decided to keep that one to himself.

[00:28:26] It wouldn't change anything.

[00:28:30] The mermaid sat on the edge of the sea and combed her hair.

[00:28:35] The long golden locks falling in perfect waves, exactly like those in the ocean.

[00:28:43] She swirled it this way and that, lifting it and folding it and shaking it over her shoulders, and then tucking the little comb just above her ear and sliding it into her hair so the line of pearls gleamed in the moonlight next to her face.

[00:29:05] And so, the three of them set off back towards the cave, where they could still hear the sound of the drums being pounded by the seal, and the lights of the jellyfish hanging from the ceiling flashed out into the dark of the night.

[00:29:25] The mermaid swam in the shallows, and the turtle clambered over the rocks, and the seagull hopped from one perch to the next.

[00:29:38] Michelle rushed down the seaweed slide once more, and Bill, of course, had his turn too, and the three arrived together at the entrance of the cave.

[00:29:51] As the mermaid arrived, the whole gathering fell silent.

[00:29:59] She smiled shyly and gave a little wave, and the crowd cheered, barely noticing she was late, and just happy that she had remembered this year.

[00:30:11] She climbed up onto the large, flat rock that served as a stage, and looked towards the seal, who nodded his head and started a slow, rhythmic tap on the drums.

[00:30:28] The mermaid lifted up her head, closed her eyes, and let the music pour from her soul into the cave.

[00:30:41] It was a voice as clear as a drop of water, as dazzling as a whole string of diamonds, as smooth as the glassy surface of the sea on a calm day, and almost, almost as beautiful as the mermaid herself.

[00:31:04] The jellyfish on the ceiling swayed gently back and forth, and turned their colours to the softest rainbow glows.

[00:31:20] Crabs danced slowly with starfish, and a group of octopus rocked gently from side to side, their arms wrapped around each other.

[00:31:34] However, Michel found the sandy corner, and curled up inside his shell.

[00:31:43] Let the others dance, he thought to himself, as the soft song of the mermaid flowed over and around him.

[00:31:54] He listened to the sound of the sea, washing gently up and down on the shore, and in his mind, he saw how the moon and the stars were reflected perfectly in the water.

[00:32:13] He saw the backs of dolphins gleaming as they went slowly through the distant waves, and imagined the seaweed swaying at the bottom of the ocean.

[00:32:28] He thought of the giant clams with their hidden magic inside.

[00:32:35] The green and blue swirls, the yellow and red swoops of colour, the purple and the pink, and how nobody knew what was in them until the clams decided to open up and share themselves with the world.

[00:32:57] And he thought of the mermaid, sitting in the moonlight, combing her hair, and how happy that had made her.

[00:33:09] And he realised that we all have things about ourselves that others may not know or understand.

[00:33:18] But they are the things that make us special and wonderful, and they are the things we must hold closest to our hearts.

[00:33:28] They are the things that make us.

[00:33:34] They are the questions and the answers, the dreams and the wishes.

[00:33:42] The moonlight on the ocean and the stars in our eyes.