Mr Catfish’s Long Beard

Mr Catfish loves to look neat and well-groomed. However, his thick beard grows out fast, and he is constantly bothered by it as he has to go through the hassle of shaving them every day.

One day, Mr Catfish was hurrying to head out to meet his friend at the Lake Centre for an optics appointment. As he was almost late, he hastily shaved without putting his glasses on while munching on his seaweed jelly dessert to save time as he was feeling hungry.

He did not notice that one strand of beard hair at the right side of his chin was dipped inside the dessert. The careless Mr Catfish missed shaving his beard hair entirely. For a beard, the jelly is so nutritious and promote growth!

Once he was done, Mr Catfish rushed out of his house to travel and meet his friend. He had no idea that his beard has grown longer and longer. It looked totally like seaweed. The long beard followed behind his body, but Mr Catfish was too preoccupied to notice.

As he passed the far end of the street, a turtle was playing skipping rope. The line of the string was old, and it broke while he was skipping.
Just then, Mr Catfish’s beard fluttered past in the water and caught the turtle’s attention. He followed the beard and thought to himself, “This seaweed rope seems long enough. I wonder if it’s strong enough to be a skipping rope.”

As soon as the turtle caught up with the beard, he began pulling Mr Catfish’s beard. Mr Catfish immediately felt someone was dragging him from behind. “Wow. This rope will make a good skipping rope for me.”
The turtle exclaimed delightfully. He swiftly bit off a section for his skipping rope. Once the tension was gone, Mr Catfish simply continued without giving much thought to what caused the pull.

As he continued, he walked under the cave of Mrs Crab’s house. Mrs Crab was looking for a rope to hang clothes. Just then, Mr Catfish’s beard drifted past her. Mrs Crab promptly used her giant claws and cut off a long seaweed beard. She tied it between the two gigantic kelp plants. “Now that’s better. I finally found a long enough rope.” She smiled with satisfaction.

Mr Catfish continued swimming, and finally, he reached the Lake Centre’s optical shop for his appointment. By then, his beard had stopped growing and was shorter after it came in handy for the sea neighbours along the way. Mr Catfish got his eyes checked and collected his new glasses. He looked into the clam mirror and finally saw the strand of beard, which was hanging on his shoulder.

Mr Clam told Mr Catfish, “If you are afraid of accidentally breaking your glasses, tie a string to the frame and hang it around your neck.” Mr Clam demonstrated by using the hanging beard while explaining. Mr Catfish thought it was a funny idea as he was always bothered by his beard, but he still left it as it was and went home.

While heading back, the careless Mr Catfish accidentally hit a coral reef, and his glasses almost slipped off his eyes. Luckily, his beard held on to the glasses. Mr Catfish thought to himself: “My beard is great after all.”

The End.