Chapter 2
A few minutes later, Mr. Ray and the children arrived at the Drop-off.
“All right, kids,” said Mr. Ray. “Feel free to explore. But stay close.” The class gathered around Mr. Ray as he began his science lesson.
Tad turned to Pearl and Sheldon. “Come on,” he whispered. “Let’s go.”
The three friends sneaked away from the group.
“Hey, guys. Wait up,” said Nemo. He raced after them. But once he realized where he was, he stopped short. He was at the edge of the reef. The ocean spread out before him. It was so big, so wide, and so blue—it was like nothing he’d ever seen.
“Whoa!” he exclaimed.
“Cool!” said Sheldon, Pearl, and Tad at the same time.
Tad pushed Pearl toward the edge. “Aaah!” she cried. Then he yanked her back.
The small octopus looked down. She was covered in black liquid. “Aw, you guys! You made me ink!”
Nemo felt dizzy with excitement. He was playing with friends! Seeing the ocean! It was all so new.
“What’s that?” Nemo pointed a fin at a dive boat floating on the surface.
“I know what it is,” said Tad. “Sandy Plankton saw one. He said it was called a butt.”
“Wow!” exclaimed Pearl. “That’s a pretty big butt.”
“Ooh-ooh, look at me,” Sheldon said, starting to swim out into the open water. “I’m going to go touch the butt! Aaaachoo!” He sneezed, and the force of his sneeze moved him a bit closer to the boat.
“Aaah!” Sheldon screamed. He raced back to his friends.
The others laughed. “Well, let’s see you get closer,” Sheldon dared them.
Pearl jumped out, just a little past where Sheldon had been. Then she hurried back. “Beat that!”
Next Tad swam out even farther than Pearl. “Come on, Nemo!” he said. “How far can you go?”
“Oh… um,” Nemo stammered. “My dad says it’s not safe.”
Suddenly, Marlin swam up next to Nemo. He pulled Nemo away from his new friends. Nervous and angry, Marlin scolded Nemo. “You were about to swim into open water!”
“No,” Nemo said. “I wasn’t going to go out—”
“It’s just a good thing I was here,” Marlin interrupted. “If I hadn’t shown up—”
“But, Dad, no—” Nemo started to say. The other children gathered around them. “Sir, he wasn’t going to go,” said Pearl. “Yeah,” said Tad. “He was too afraid.” “No, I wasn’t!” Nemo said defensively. “This does not concern you, kids,” Marlin said to Nemo’s friends. “And you’re lucky I don’t tell your parents you were out there!” Then he turned to Nemo. “You know you can’t swim well.”
“I can swim fine, Dad, okay?” Nemo cried. “No, it’s not okay. You shouldn’t be anywhere near here,” Marlin said. “I was right. You know what? We’ll start school in a year or two.”
“No, Dad! Just because you’re scared of the ocean—”
“Clearly you’re not ready, and you’re not coming back here till you are,” Marlin said. “You think you can do these things, but you just can’t, Nemo!”
“I hate you,” Nemo whispered under his breath. His dad had embarrassed him in front of everyone. Nemo would show them he wasn’t scared of the ocean like his dad.
“Excuse me.” Mr. Ray swam up to Marlin, shooing the children away. “Is there anything I can do?”
“You know, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt things. He isn’t a good swimmer, and I just think it’s a little too soon for him to be out here unsupervised,” Marlin explained.
“Well, I can assure you, he’s quite safe with me—” Mr. Ray started to say.
Marlin shook his head, interrupting the teacher. “Look, I’m sure he is, but you have a large class. He can get lost, you know, from sight if you’re not looking. Now, I’m not saying you’re not looking. You’re looking . . .” As the grown-ups kept talking, one little fish gasped. “Oh my gosh! Nemo’s swimming out to sea!”
“Nemo!” Marlin shouted. “What do you think you’re doing? You’re gonna get stuck out there, and I’m gonna have to get you before another fish does! Get back here! I said get back here, now! Stop! You take one more move, mister—”
Nemo ignored his father. I’m getting closer, he thought. Closer. There! He slapped the side of the dive boat with his fin.
“He touched the butt!” Tad said in amazement.
“You just paddle your little tail right back here, Nemo!” Marlin yelled. “That’s right. You are in big trouble, young man. Do you hear me?Big—”
Marlin froze, unable to speak. But now everyone else was shouting for Nemo to swim back quickly.
Nemo realized everyone was looking behind him. What was going on? He spun around to look. All he could see was his own reflection in a giant diver’s mask....
第 2 章
幾分鐘后,雷老師和孩子們就到了峭壁。
“好了,孩子們,”雷老師說,“自由地去探險吧。但是,別走遠了。” 雷老師開始上科學(xué)課了,學(xué)生們圍在他身旁。
泰迪轉(zhuǎn)向珍珠和希頓。“快點,”他小聲說,“我們走。”
三個好朋友從隊伍里溜走了。
“嗨,伙計們,等一下。”尼莫說。他在后面追趕他們。但是,一旦他意識到自己到了什么地方,他突然停了下來。他來到了大堡礁的邊緣。大海就展現(xiàn)在他面前。大海那么大,那么寬闊,那么湛藍——和他以前看到的完全不一樣。
“哇!”他驚叫起來。
“太棒了!”希頓、珍珠和泰迪異口同聲地說。
泰迪把珍珠往邊上推。“啊!”她大叫。接著他使勁把她拽回來。
小章魚往下看了看。她身上都是墨汁。“呀,你們這些家伙!你們都害我吐了!”
尼莫興奮得都暈了。和朋友們一起玩!看大海!這一切都那么新鮮。
“那是什么?”尼莫用一只魚鰭指著海面上漂浮著的一艘潛水船問道。
“我知道那是什么,”泰迪說,“山迪叔叔看到過一個。他說,那叫屁屁。”
“哇!”珍珠大叫,“那屁屁可真大。”
“哦,看我的,”希頓說著,準備向那片開放的水域游去。“我要去摸摸那個屁屁!阿……阿……嚏!”他打了個噴嚏,打噴嚏使的力氣使他離船更近了一些。
“啊!”希頓尖叫著。他快速游回到朋友身邊。
其他人大笑。“好了,看你們的了。”希頓向他們發(fā)出挑戰(zhàn)。
珍珠跳出來,比希頓游得更遠一點。然后,她趕緊回來了,說道:“超過你了!”
接著,泰迪又比珍珠游得更遠。“來吧,尼莫!”他說,“你能游多遠?”
“哦……呃,”尼莫結(jié)結(jié)巴巴地說,“我老爸說,大海很危險。”
馬林突然游到了尼莫身邊。他把尼莫從新朋友身邊拉走。馬林既緊張又生氣地訓(xùn)斥尼莫:“你竟然想游到開放的水域!”
“沒有,”尼莫說,“我沒打算過去——”
“幸好我來了,”馬林打斷尼莫的話,“要是我沒來——”
“但是,老爸,不——”尼莫開始解釋。其他孩子圍在他們旁邊。“先生,他沒打算過去。”珍珠說。“是的,”泰迪說,“他太害怕了。”“不,我不怕!”尼莫辯解道。“這不關(guān)你們的事,孩子們,”馬林對尼莫的朋友們說,“算你們走運,我不會把你們游過去的事告訴你們家長!”然后,他轉(zhuǎn)身對尼莫說:“你知道,你游得不好。”
“老爸,我可以游得很好,好嗎?”尼莫大喊。“不,不行。你就不該來這附近,”馬林說,“我說得沒錯。你知道什么?我們還是晚一兩年再上學(xué)吧。”
“不,老爸!就因為你害怕大海——”
“很明顯,你還沒有準備好,在你準備好之前不能再來這兒,”馬林說,“你覺得你能做這些事,但是你就是做不來,尼莫!”
“我討厭你。”尼莫輕聲地說。他的爸爸讓他在所有人面前難堪。尼莫會證明給大家看,他可不像他老爸那樣害怕大海。
“對不起,”雷老師游到馬林跟前,把孩子們趕走,“我可以做些什么嗎?”
“你知道,我很抱歉。我不是故意要搗亂。他的游泳技術(shù)不行,我只是覺得讓他一個人來這兒有點為時過早。”馬林解釋道。
“嗯,我可以保證,他跟著我很安全——”雷老師開始說。
馬林搖了搖頭,打斷老師的話。“聽我說,我確信他跟著你很安全,但是你班里學(xué)生太多。要知道,你一個不注意,他就會走丟。我不是說你沒注意。你注意……”大人們說個沒完的時候,一條小魚驚得屏住了呼吸。“哦,天哪!尼莫游向了海面!”
“尼莫!”馬林大喊,“你知道你在干什么嗎?你會困在那兒的,我要趕在另一條魚之前抓住你!回來!我說了馬上回來!停下來!你再敢往前游一下,先生——”
尼莫不理會父親。我靠得更近了,他想。更近了。那兒!他用鰭拍打著潛水船的一側(cè)。
“他碰到那個屁屁了!”泰迪驚訝地說。
“趕緊擺動你的小尾巴游回來,尼莫!”馬林叫嚷著,“好吧。你有大麻煩了,年輕人。聽到了嗎?大——”
馬林呆住了,說不出話來。而此刻其他人都在大喊,讓尼莫快點游回來。
尼莫意識到大家都在往他身后看。出什么事了?他猛轉(zhuǎn)過身想看個究竟,卻只看見自己在潛水員巨大面罩上的投影……