Hello Storytime crew and welcome back.
I am so glad you're here.
Today's story is about bravery,
Telling the truth and learning that you can feel scared and still be brave at the very same time.
Because sometimes being brave doesn't mean puffing out your chest,
Pretending everything is fine,
And wearing a saucepan on your head for protection.
More about that later.
Today we are deep diving under the sea to a place called Rainbow Reef.
It's bright,
It's colourful,
It's bubbly and it's full of the most wonderful ocean creatures you've ever seen.
There are sleepy turtles snoring in shell hammocks.
Tiny crabs brushing their teeth before bed.
Glowing plankton floating through the water like little underwater stars.
And somewhere nearby there's a suspicious looking clump of seaweed that may or may not be watching everyone.
Guys,
I'd like you to meet my friend Clark.
The clock is a shock.
But he isn't just any shark.
Clark has shiny teeth,
Brave fins,
A very swishy tail and a voice that is extremely good at announcing things loudly to the entire reef.
Clark wants everyone to know that he's definitely not afraid of the dark.
Not even a teeny tiny bit.
Not even the slightest.
Not even if the shadows wiggle.
Not even if the seaweed looks suspicious.
Not even if his teeth start sweating.
Except.
.
.
Clock might be a little afraid of the dark.
Actually guys,
He might be very,
Very afraid of the dark.
And tonight when his favorite glow worm light goes missing.
Clark is going to have to swim into the shadowy part of the reef and find out what bravery really feels like.
Shall we go and see what Clark the shark's up to?
Are you ready?
Alright,
Let's go!
What are you waiting for?
Let's dive in!
Clock,
The shock was bright.
He was very brave.
Braver than a crab at a tap dancing competition.
Braver than a seahorse with the hiccups.
Braver than a jellyfish trying to wear a pair of jeans.
At least,
That's what Clark told everyone.
Every morning Clark swam through Rainbow Reef with his chest puffed out,
His tail swishing proudly behind him.
And his biggest shark smile stretched across his face.
I'm Clark the shark he would announce to the sea cucumbers and the clownfish and the starfish and anyone else who happened to be floating by.
And I'm absolutely scared of nothing.
Nothing at all.
Not big waves.
Not loud bubbles.
Definitely not dentist appointments.
Not even Aunt Coral's seaweed casserole.
And that,
Well,
That moved by itself.
Clark was a shark.
He had strong fins.
He had shiny teeth.
He had a tail that could swish and swoosh and accidentally knock over three shoal lambs in one go.
Clark wasn't the sort of shark who got scared.
Definitely not.
Absolutely not.
Not even a tiny little bit.
Except guys for one thing just a teeny tiny little thing and Clark didn't really like to talk about it.
Are you ready?
It was the dark.
Every evening when the sun slipped down behind the waves and the ocean turned deep and blue and shadowy,
Rainbow Reef began to get quiet.
The fish tucked themselves into their coral beds.
The crabs put on their tiny crab pyjamas.
The turtles curled up in their shell hammocks.
The seaweeds stopped dancing and swayed sleepily in the moonlight water.
Everything became soft.
Everything became still.
Everything became dark.
And that's when Clark became very,
Very busy.
He had important shark business to do.
Very important shark business to do.
First he needed a drink of seawater.
Then he needed another drink of seawater,
Just in case the first drink had not been watery enough.
Then he needed to count his teeth.
Then you needed to count them again!
What if one had just fallen out?
Then he needed to check behind the coral shelf.
Then he needed to check inside his toy chest.
Then he needed to check underneath his bed with his long spoon from Mum's drawer in the kitchen.
Clark didn't know what the spoon would do if he found something scary under there,
But it felt kind of official.
Clark's little brother JV watched him from his show bed nearby.
JV was much smaller than Clark,
But he had a very sharp eye for nonsense.
Every night he watched Clark do his important shark business.
And every night he watched him peek around the corners.
And every night he watched him arrange 12 glow starfish in a circle right around his bed.
And every night JB watched him place a sign outside his cave door that said No dark allowed.
Please come back in the morning.
Unfortunately guys the dark didn't read signs.
I know rude right?
One night Clark was more prepared than usual.
He wore a saucepan on his head as a helmet.
He wrapped himself in a blanket made of seaweed.
He had three emergency snacks beside his bed just in case.
He asked Gary the glowworm to shine extra brightly from his jar on the coral shelf.
Gary was Clark's favorite nightlight.
Gary glowed softly every night.
Filling the cave with a warm green shimmer.
Cluck cluck,
Gary.
Very much.
Gary was small.
And Gary was quiet.
Gary never asked Clark if he was scared.
Gary simply just glowed.
That made Gary very trustworthy and very,
Very safe.
Clark climbed into bed and pulled his seaweed blanket all the way up to his nose.
The reef outside was quiet.
The cave was dim.
The shadows stretched along the walls.
Clark blinked once.
Twice.
Three times.
Hmm,
Something was wrong.
The soft green glow was gone.
Clark slowly turned his head towards the coral shelf.
Gary's jar was empty.
Clark froze.
His fins went stiff.
His tail curled under the blanket.
His teeth felt very cold.
Gary was missing.
For three whole seconds,
Clark was completely silent.
Then he screamed.
It wasn't a small scream and it wasn't a polite scream.
It was the sort of scream that made a crab drop his toothbrush.
A turtle fall out of his hammock.
And a puffer fish puff up into the shape of a beach ball and float all the way up to the surface.
Clark leapt out of bed wearing his saucepan helmet sideways.
He bumped into the coral shelf.
He tripped over his emergency snacks.
He accidentally wrapped himself in his seaweed blanket and rolled across the cave like a terrified sushi roll.
JV set up in bed.
He blinked slowly at his big brother,
Trying to figure out what exactly he was up to now.
Clark popped his head out of the seaweed blanket.
He tried to look calm.
He definitely didn't look calm.
He looked like a shark who was just being personally attacked by bedtime.
Gary was missing.
And if Gary was missing.
Then Gary might be out there.
In the dark,
In the deep,
Shadowy,
Whispery,
Wiggly dark.
Clock gulped.
A brave shark would rescue his glowworm.
Brave shark would swim into the night.
A brave shark wouldn't hide inside a salad bowl.
Clock up down,
Huh?
Why am I holding a salad bowl?
I hate salad.
He quickly put the salad bowl on his head.
For safety,
Of course.
Then Clark swam out of the cave to find help.
Rainbow Reef look different at night.
During the day it was bright and busy and full of colour.
At night,
The coral towers became tall,
Shadowy shapes.
The seaweed looked like waving fingers.
The rocks looked like sleeping sea monsters.
Even the bubbles sounded suspicious.
Clark found some of his friends near the moon pool.
There was Sunny the Siamese Fighting Fish and Van the Viperfish floating calmly in the water like a soft silvery blanket.
Guys,
When I say Sunny and Van were rarely calm,
I mean these two were always up to mischief.
But more about these two cheeky chaps in another story.
There was also Pearl the pufferfish.
Pearl was oh so wise.
But she also puffed up like a beach ball whenever she was surprised,
Which guys,
Was often.
And then there was Sid the squid who meant well but squirted black ink whenever he got startled.
Which let's just say was quite often.
Clark told them all that Gary was missing.
He explained that Gary was probably in terrible danger.
He explained that the dark part of the reef needed to be searched immediately.
He explained that he was not scared at all.
Not one bit.
Not even slightly!
This would have been much more convincing if Clark hadn't been wearing a salad bowl on his head and holding a spoon like a sword.
Sunny and Van watched him kindly.
Pearl made a nervous little squeak.
Sid tried not to squeeze the ink and together they set off for the darker part of Rainbow Reef.
Clock led the way.
Well,
Kind of.
He led from behind Sonny and Van.
Very closely behind Sunny and Van,
Almost underneath Sunny and Van.
The first shadow appeared near the waving seaweed.
It stretched long and wiggly across the sand.
Clark stopped so quickly that Pearl bumped into him and puffed into a perfect round ball.
The shadow wiggled again.
Clark's eyes grew wide.
His fins trembled.
His salad bowl helmet slid over one eye.
The shadow was definitely there.
A monster.
Probably.
Maybe.
Almost certainly.
Hmm.
It had long arms.
It had a big bendy back.
It had a spooky wiggle.
It was,
Without question,
The Wiggly Witch of Wiggleton.
Sunny and Van floated forward.
Nothing really scared these two.
The shadow swayed.
The seaweed swished.
The scary monster turned out to be three pieces of seaweed dancing in the current.
Clark cleared his throat.
He'd known that,
Of course he'd known that.
He was simply checking that everyone else knew that too.
They kept swimming.
A little further into the reef they came across a large dark shape on the sand.
It was round.
It was still.
And it made a deep rumbling sound.
Clark froze again.
This time even his teeth seemed to hold their breath.
The dark shape rumbled.
Clark clutched his spoon so tightly.
This was clearly a rock with breathing issues.
Or maybe worse.
Maybe it was a sleeping boulder beast.
Their imaginations were working in overtime.
Pearl puffed up yet again.
Sid's eyes widened.
Sunny and Van floated closer and gently poked and prodded the beast from behind.
The bolder beast opened one sleepy eye.
Oh,
It was just old Grandpa Turtle.
Grandpa Turtle yawned so widely that a tiny prawn nearby lost its hat.
Then he rolled over and went straight back to sleep.
Clark nodded seriously.
It's cool.
It's cool,
He said.
I knew that was Grandpa Turtle.
He had simply been testing the group's turtle awareness.
So they continued on.
The reef grew darker.
The moonlight shimmered on the surface of the water far above them.
Tiny dots of glowing plankton drifted through the water like underwater stars.
But Clark didn't notice the glowing plankton.
He was too busy noticing absolutely everything that might be a monster.
The shell became a skull.
A sponge became a hairy sea goblin.
And a clump of socks became very,
Very suspicious.
And nobody knew why there was a clump of socks at the bottom of the ocean,
Which made it even more strange.
Then something clicked in the shadows.
Click.
Clickity-click.
Clark stopped.
Pearl puffed.
Sunny and Van swam behind an old bottle that looked like it had been in the bottom of the ocean for a long time.
Seed hiccuped.
Then a tiny shrimp stepped out from behind the rock.
Tapping two shelves together.
The clock stared at it.
The shrimp's dead back.
The shrimp clicked again.
I clocked that at a tiny little squeak.
That he later described as a powerful shark alert sound.
Sid got such a fright that he squirted black ink everywhere.
The water turned black.
Oh no guys,
Now everything was even darker.
For a moment,
No one moved.
Clark couldn't see the reef,
He couldn't see the rocks,
He couldn't see his friend,
Couldn't even see his spoon.
He could feel the panic setting in.
He could feel his heart thumping hard in his chest.
His tummy felt fizzy.
His fins felt wobbly.
His thoughts zoomed around his head like a school of fish who had drunk too much bubble juice.
The dark suddenly felt too big,
Too close,
Too full of what ifs.
What if Gary was gone forever?
What if there really were monsters?
What if the Socks are planning something?
Clark tried to puff out his chest.
But his chest didn't want to puff out.
It curled up and hid behind his ribcage.
Sunny and Van's calm voices floated through the ink dark water.
They didn't laugh,
They didn't tell Clark to stop being silly,
They didn't say big sharks don't get scared.
Simply floated close enough for Clark to feel the soft gentle movement of the water around them.
After holding his breath for what felt like forever.
Clark finally let out a shaky breath.
The truth slipped out of him.
I'm so scared,
He squeaked.
Not a tiny bit.
Not a medium bit.
A huge,
Tooth-sweating,
Tail-trembling,
Spoon-holding amount.
For a moment,
The reef stayed quiet.
Then Pearl,
Who was always full of wisdom,
Gently reminded him that telling the truth was not the opposite of being brave.
In fact,
Telling the truth was part of being brave.
Pretending used up a lot of energy.
And the truth gave us some of that energy back.
Clark felt those words settle somewhere inside of him.
He was still scared.
But he was no longer using all his energy trying to look like he wasn't.
Then Pearl taught them a little reset for scary moments just like this.
She called it the Shark Spark Reset.
First.
They had to name what they felt.
Oh,
Yep.
I feel scared,
Said Clark.
Then you need to notice where you're feeling that emotion,
Continued Pearl.
Well oh there's some fizzing in my tummy said Clark.
My fins are also trembling and shaking and my heart feels like it's going to thump right out of my chest.
Pearl then taught them all to breathe like the waves.
We're going to take a slow breath in,
She said.
As the wave rolls in.
And a long breath out as the waves roll out.
In and out.
In and out.
The dark was still there.
But Clark's breath was there too.
Then Pearl explained to them all about looking for three safe things around them.
It's called Safe Spotting Explains Pearl,
And it helps you feel safe again.
They all looked around them.
First,
They saw the tiny glowing plankton floating past without a care in the world.
Then they noticed the sand gently rippling on the ocean floor making the most beautiful and calming patterns.
And then they saw the familiar coral path back towards home stretched out just behind them.
Three safe things.
Three steady things.
Three little lights inside their dark.
Finally,
Clark took one tiny fin step forward.
Not a giant leap!
Not a dramatic rescue dive.
Just one tiny fin step.
Then another.
Than another.
The ink slowly began to clear.
The reef appeared again piece by piece.
A rock.
A shell.
Sleepy turtle.
I'm quite an embarrassed squid.
And in the distance,
Behind a curtain of swaying corals,
Something glowed.
Clock blinks.
Rubbed his eyes.
Blinked again!
There's a warm green shimmer flickering through the shadows.
Gary Clark's heart gave a hopeful little flip and a little flop.
The friends swam towards the glow.
As they got closer,
Music began to drift through the water.
Tiny music.
Wiggly music.
Glow worm disco music.
Pushed through the coral curtain.
There was Gary.
Gary wasn't lost.
Gary definitely wasn't in danger.
Gary wasn't being chased by a monster.
Gary was dancing under a disco ball in the middle of a glow worm disco.
Hundreds of glowworms shook and shimmied around the coral cave,
Flashing green and gold and blue and pink.
Some wore tiny sunglasses.
One even wore a glittery hat.
The tiny sign above the cave entrance that read,
Gary's Glow Party.
Absolutely no dramatic sharks welcome.
The clock stared at the sign.
He was deeply offended by that.
He wasn't dramatic.
He was emotionally expressive with just a little bit of volume.
Gary blinked happily at Clark and the glowworms kept dancing.
Pearl deflated herself with so much relief.
Sid tried very hard not to ink on the dance floor.
Sunny and Van looked at Clark with the biggest smiles on their faces and guys mischief in their eyes.
Clark looked around the glowing cave.
The dark outside no longer seemed quite as empty and terrifying.
It wasn't full of nothing.
It was full of quiet things.
Sleeping turtles.
Soft coral.
Waving seaweed.
Tiny shrimp with clicking shells.
Glowing plankton.
Friends nearby.
And sometimes,
Apparently,
Glowworms wearing sunglasses and hats covered in glitter.
Who knew,
Guys?
Who knew?
Clark felt something new growing in his chest.
He wasn't fearless and he wasn't completely calm,
But he did feel steadier.
He'd gone into the dark.
He had felt scared.
He had told the truth.
He had breathed.
And he'd taken one tiny fin step at a time.
And that felt like courage and bravery,
Like real bravery.
Not the loud kind that puffed itself up and shouted through the reef.
The quiet kind.
The kind that could feel all the feelings and keep going.
The kind that could say,
I'm scared.
But still move forward.
Gary floated back with Clark,
Glowing proudly beside him.
The friends returned through Rainbow Reef.
The shadows were still there.
The seaweed still wiggled.
Grandpa Turtle was still snoring like a freight train.
Those silly socks were still looking very suspicious,
But Clark decided not everything needed to be solved in one night.
Back at his coral cave.
Clark placed Gary gently on the shelf.
He took off his salad bowl helmet.
He put his spoon away.
Climbed back into bed and pulled up his seaweed blanket.
The cave was dim,
The reef was quiet.
The dark settled softly around him.
Black looked at the shadows on the walls.
They were still a little strange,
But they were nowhere near as enormous as they were before.
He breathed like the waves,
Just like Pearl had taught him.
In as the waves rolled in.
Out as the waves rolled out.
He found three safe things.
He's bed.
Gary's gentle glow.
JV snoring softly nearby.
Clark smiled.
He was still a shock.
He still had teeth in his face.
He still liked his night light and that was totally fine.
Although Clark no longer needed 47 glow starfish around his bed he decided to keep 12.
Hmm,
Well actually maybe 16,
Plus Gary.
Just for decoration.
Cluck snuggled down and whispered into the quiet cave,
I can feel scared and still be brave.
From the other side of the room,
JV opened one eye.
He asked Clark if he wanted him to check under the bed.
Clark thought about it for a moment.
He looked at the shadows.
He looked at Gary's glow.
He took a slow wave breath in.
And out.
And then he shook his head,
No thanks JV,
Not tonight.
JV closed his eyes again.
And a moment later Clark made a mental note that someone should probably check those socks in the morning.
Because some things in life were genuinely concerning.
And with that,
Clark the shark,
Who was definitely not afraid of the dark.
Except sometimes he absolutely was drifted off to sleep.
Brave fins,
Brave heart,
Slightly sweaty teeth.
And one tiny glowworm dancing softly beside him.
So my little legends that's the story of Clark the shark who was definitely not afraid of the dark.
Except sometimes he absolutely was,
And that's okay.
Tonight Clark learns something very important.
Being brave doesn't mean you never feel scared.
Being brave means you can tell the truth about how you're feeling.
Can notice what's happening in your body.
Can take a slow breath.
You can look around and find three safe things.
And you can take one tiny step at a time.
Because being scared and brave can live in the same body at the same time.
So Storytime crew,
The next time the dark feels a little too dark,
Or your thoughts start making up spooky stories,
Maybe you can try Clark's Shark Spark Reset.
Name what you feel.
Breathe like the waves.
Look around for three safe things.
Then take one tiny step.
And remember,
You don't have to be fearless to be brave.
You can be wobbly and brave,
Quiet and brave,
Teary and brave,
Small and brave.
You can even be wearing a salad bowl or a saucepan on your head and still be brave.
Thank you for joining me for today's story,
Guys.
I am so glad you came on this underwater adventure with Clark and the Storytime crew.
Until next time,
Keep breathing like the waves,
Keep finding your brave,
And please,
Whatever you do,
Keep one eye out for those very suspicious looking socks.
Bye!
