CHAPTER 35
In the Shark’s body Pinocchio finds whom? Read this chapter, my
children, and you will know.
Pinocchio, as soon as he had said good-by to his good friend, the Tunny,
tottered away in the darkness and began to walk as well as he could
toward the faint light which glowed in the distance.
As he walked his feet splashed in a pool of greasy and slippery water,
which had such a heavy smell of fish fried in oil that Pinocchio thought
it was Lent.
The farther on he went, the brighter and clearer grew the tiny light. On
and on he walked till finally he found--I give you a thousand guesses,
my dear children! He found a little table set for dinner and lighted by
a candle stuck in a glass bottle; and near the table sat a little old
man, white as the snow, eating live fish. They wriggled so that, now and
again, one of them slipped out of the old man’s mouth and escaped into
the darkness under the table.
At this sight, the poor Marionette was filled with such great and sudden
happiness that he almost dropped in a faint. He wanted to laugh, he
wanted to cry, he wanted to say a thousand and one things, but all he
could do was to stand still, stuttering and stammering brokenly. At
last, with a great effort, he was able to let out a scream of joy and,
opening wide his arms he threw them around the old man’s neck.
“Oh, Father, dear Father! Have I found you at last? Now I shall never,
never leave you again!”
“Are my eyes really telling me the truth?” answered the old man, rubbing
his eyes. “Are you really my own dear Pinocchio?”
“Yes, yes, yes! It is I! Look at me! And you have forgiven me, haven’t
you? Oh, my dear Father, how good you are! And to think that I--Oh, but
if you only knew how many misfortunes have fallen on my head and how
many troubles I have had! Just think that on the day you sold your old
coat to buy me my A-B-C book so that I could go to school, I ran away to
the Marionette Theater and the proprietor caught me and wanted to burn
me to cook his roast lamb! He was the one who gave me the five gold
pieces for you, but I met the Fox and the Cat, who took me to the Inn of
the Red Lobster. There they ate like wolves and I left the Inn alone
and I met the Assassins in the wood. I ran and they ran after me, always
after me, till they hanged me to the branch of a giant oak tree. Then
the Fairy of the Azure Hair sent the coach to rescue me and the doctors,
after looking at me, said, ‘If he is not dead, then he is surely alive,’
and then I told a lie and my nose began to grow. It grew and it grew,
till I couldn’t get it through the door of the room. And then I went
with the Fox and the Cat to the Field of Wonders to bury the gold
pieces. The Parrot laughed at me and, instead of two thousand gold
pieces, I found none. When the Judge heard I had been robbed, he sent
me to jail to make the thieves happy; and when I came away I saw a fine
bunch of grapes hanging on a vine. The trap caught me and the Farmer put
a collar on me and made me a watchdog. He found out I was innocent when
I caught the Weasels and he let me go. The Serpent with the tail that
smoked started to laugh and a vein in his chest broke and so I went back
to the Fairy’s house. She was dead, and the Pigeon, seeing me crying,
said to me, ‘I have seen your father building a boat to look for you in
America,’ and I said to him, ‘Oh, if I only had wings!’ and he said to
me, ‘Do you want to go to your father?’ and I said, ‘Perhaps, but how?’
and he said, ‘Get on my back. I’ll take you there.’ We flew all night
long, and next morning the fishermen were looking toward the sea,
crying, ‘There is a poor little man drowning,’ and I knew it was you,
because my heart told me so and I waved to you from the shore--”
“I knew you also,” put in Geppetto, “and I wanted to go to you; but how
could I? The sea was rough and the whitecaps overturned the boat. Then
a Terrible Shark came up out of the sea and, as soon as he saw me in the
water, swam quickly toward me, put out his tongue, and swallowed me as
easily as if I had been a chocolate peppermint.”
“And how long have you been shut away in here?”
“From that day to this, two long weary years--two years, my Pinocchio,
which have been like two centuries.”
“And how have you lived? Where did you find the candle? And the matches
with which to light it--where did you get them?”
“You must know that, in the storm which swamped my boat, a large ship
also suffered the same fate. The sailors were all saved, but the ship
went right to the bottom of the sea, and the same Terrible Shark that
swallowed me, swallowed most of it.”
“What! Swallowed a ship?” asked Pinocchio in astonishment.
“At one gulp. The only thing he spat out was the main-mast, for it
stuck in his teeth. To my own good luck, that ship was loaded with meat,
preserved foods, crackers, bread, bottles of wine, raisins, cheese,
coffee, sugar, wax candles, and boxes of matches. With all these
blessings, I have been able to live happily on for two whole years, but
now I am at the very last crumbs. Today there is nothing left in the
cupboard, and this candle you see here is the last one I have.”
“And then?”
“And then, my dear, we’ll find ourselves in darkness.”
“Then, my dear Father,” said Pinocchio, “there is no time to lose. We
must try to escape.”
“Escape! How?”
“We can run out of the Shark’s mouth and dive into the sea.”
“You speak well, but I cannot swim, my dear Pinocchio.”
“Why should that matter? You can climb on my shoulders and I, who am a
fine swimmer, will carry you safely to the shore.”
“Dreams, my boy!” answered Geppetto, shaking his head and smiling sadly.
“Do you think it possible for a Marionette, a yard high, to have the
strength to carry me on his shoulders and swim?”
“Try it and see! And in any case, if it is written that we must die, we
shall at least die together.”
Not adding another word, Pinocchio took the candle in his hand and going
ahead to light the way, he said to his father:
“Follow me and have no fear.”
They walked a long distance through the stomach and the whole body of
the Shark. When they reached the throat of the monster, they stopped for
a while to wait for the right moment in which to make their escape.
I want you to know that the Shark, being very old and suffering from
asthma and heart trouble, was obliged to sleep with his mouth open.
Because of this, Pinocchio was able to catch a glimpse of the sky filled
with stars, as he looked up through the open jaws of his new home.
“The time has come for us to escape,” he whispered, turning to his
father. “The Shark is fast asleep. The sea is calm and the night is
as bright as day. Follow me closely, dear Father, and we shall soon be
saved.”
No sooner said than done. They climbed up the throat of the monster till
they came to that immense open mouth. There they had to walk on tiptoes,
for if they tickled the Shark’s long tongue he might awaken--and where
would they be then? The tongue was so wide and so long that it looked
like a country road. The two fugitives were just about to dive into the
sea when the Shark sneezed very suddenly and, as he sneezed, he gave
Pinocchio and Geppetto such a jolt that they found themselves thrown
on their backs and dashed once more and very unceremoniously into the
stomach of the monster.
To make matters worse, the candle went out and father and son were left
in the dark.
“And now?” asked Pinocchio with a serious face.
“Now we are lost.”
“Why lost? Give me your hand, dear Father, and be careful not to slip!”
“Where will you take me?”
“We must try again. Come with me and don’t be afraid.”
With these words Pinocchio took his father by the hand and, always
walking on tiptoes, they climbed up the monster’s throat for a second
time. They then crossed the whole tongue and jumped over three rows of
teeth. But before they took the last great leap, the Marionette said to
his father:
“Climb on my back and hold on tightly to my neck. I’ll take care of
everything else.”
As soon as Geppetto was comfortably seated on his shoulders, Pinocchio,
very sure of what he was doing, dived into the water and started to
swim. The sea was like oil, the moon shone in all splendor, and the
Shark continued to sleep so soundly that not even a cannon shot would
have awakened him.