Simon Swims the River

(Here is The Audio Version by Audio Acrobat:)

Once upon a time there was a Salmon named Simon.

Simon was an excellent swimmer. His favorite place to swim was the big river because there was plenty of room to swim around. Simon spent a lot of time swimming in the big river and this helped his fins to grow really strong. Simon liked for his fins to feel strong. Plus, he made a lot of friends at the big river too. He tried to get over to the big river every single day. He would do his daily swim up the river, and then slowly float back down the river and say hello to his friends the whole way. When Simon would finish his daily swim, he would feel really good and happy to move on with the rest of his day.

Simon spent a lot of time at the big river. Then one day, things changed.

I think it was a Friday afternoon. When Simon swam home from his daily swim at the big river, there was a message that his mother needed his help. Simon swam right over! When Simon arrived he found that his mother was swimming a little slower than usual and needed a helping fin to get around. Simon decided to call the doctor to come and check on her. When the doctor came to give Simon’s mom a check up, she told Simon that his mother was going to be fine. She told Simon that his mother was supposed to swim slowly at her age, and that her fins were not as strong as a young Salmons fins were. She would need Simon to come over to help her out every day from now on.

Simon was glad that his mother was going to be okay and was happy to be able to help.

He helped her gather her food and tidy her place a bit. After Simon helped his mother with everything that she needed, she told him to go on home. Simon began to visit his mother everyday to help her gather her food and tidy her place, instead of swimming over to the big river. Simon’s mother was very grateful for the help, but after a while she noticed that Simon’s fins weren’t looking as strong as they used to. Since Simon wasn’t swimming at the big river anymore, his fins weren’t getting any exercise. Simon missed talking to his friends there too, but he was happy that he was able to help his mom out every day. After a while, Simon noticed that he wasn’t swimming as fast as he used to either. He thought to himself, “If I start to swim slowly, then I won’t be able to help out mother, someone will have to help me out! I really need to start swimming at the big river again.”

But how would Simon be able to swim at the big river and help his mother every day?

Simon decided to get some help from his friends! He remembered that he met a couple of other young Salmons at the big river who had mothers the same age as his, so Simon invited his friends and their mothers to get together everyday. A few of them liked the idea so they decided that Simon and his friends would go to the big river while the mothers visited with each other.

All of the mothers really liked each other and they became good friends just like Simon and the other young Salmons.

Simon’s mother even started to swim a little faster. She was getting out of the house more with her friends and her fins were getting stronger from all of the swimming. Simon’s fins started to look strong again too! He helped his friends to become excellent swimmers and grow strong fins. The Salmon mothers would help each other gather food and tidy their houses together. Every Salmon felt happy and every Salmon kept on swimming.

The End.

This work is licensed by Julie Phineas
under a Creative Commons Attribution-
Noncommercial-No Derivative Works
3.0 United States License.

About the Author: Julie Phineas is a work at home mom of 2 who lives in Southern California. You can find out more about her and view her photos by visiting her page on MySpace.