This story is about a person called Grace. Grace had a lot of money, worked for it herself and was rolling in dough.

Grace had all she ever wanted: nice house, computer, nice furniture, lived close to the beach, beautiful garden, huge section and had the nicest car you could ever wish for.

She earned her money from designing tunes and words for songs for famous song groups, and retired some years later after the birth of her son Bert.

Now she stood out on her porch over looking the great land and trees and fields of her section, and watched her little boy rolling in the clover.

"There is something missing," Grace thought thoughtfully. "Now, what could it be? Something just isn't right here...my son - he's a good addition, the gardens - pretty good, the trees? No! No! Goodness, whatever is it?"

She thought it looked too empty, even though it had her little boy crawling over it wrecking all the garden flowers.

She stood and gazed, then with a sudden "click," she realized what it was! When you have a big section, there is almost always a reckless, energetic pet running about the place burning off energy.

"My son needs a pet!" she thought.

With that Grace bundled her son into the car and zoomed down to the pet shop.

Her son was only one and half years old, and was only just learning to crawl forwards as well as backwards.

Grace carried Bert into the shop and there were heaps of pets, Grace just didn't know which to choose!

Bert pointed and started gurgling with excitement as he watched two little fish swimming in a water tank and Grace, thinking that it was just because Bert had never seen a fish before, took him over to have a look.

There weren't many people in the fish section, they were too busy cooing over the puppy's and kitten's and baby birds and the like, so Grace and Bert had the whole fish section to themselves.

Grace pointed out other fish to Bert, heaps prettier than the ones Bert had pointed to, but Bert payed no attention to them, he liked the two little orange and yellow fish that were secretly waving to Bert when Grace wasn't looking.

When Grace turned to walk away from the two little fish, Bert started crying, kicking and bucking.

Grace hushed him and showed him a cute little puppy which Grace later named Pumpkin because he was a strange orange-yellow color.

Bert soon took to the puppy and so the case was settled, Grace bought the puppy, and left the store.

When Grace and Bert got home, Grace set down the puppy to run about the lawn, and then stood at her porch again.

Oh yes! The sight of that dog running about in the garden, sniffing the flowers, chewing his bone, running in the fresh air, digging up the garden.... What?!

"Pumpkin!" Shouted Grace, "get out of there!"

Bert had been put to sleep, and all was quiet as Pumpkin nosed about in a bush - but without Grace knowing, something slid out of the pockets of her jacket, which she had carelessly tossed on the kitchen chair when she got home.

Do you know what they were? They were fish!

These fish are a special species, and Grace was going to be the first human being to discover them! They could swim, run on their tail fins, jump and play tricks, but the most stunning thing about them was that they could talk. Thankfully for Grace, they spoke English, and several other different languages!

Now the two fish were running across the floor.

"Wow!" Exclaimed one, "Look at this house! Man, we certainly chose the right house for us to live in."

"Yeah! This is cool!"

The two fish scrambled up onto the bench, and found some food.

"Eww," said one, "What's this gooey stuff Tootsie?"

"Yuck! I don't know,"

"That girl certainly knows how to live, but she don't know how to eat!"

"Well Tootsie, I think we'll have to teach her that part! Now, do you remember our introduction?"

"Sure do Tootsie Wootsie!"

"Oh listen!" suddenly exclaimed Tootsie, "The dog's coming in!"

"Quick, play dead!"

Pumpkin scrambled into the house and ran down the hall, another moment later Grace was seen tumbling after him, trying to beat him to Bert's room - and another moment later there was a loud screaming noise, and a volley of barking and, above it all, Grace could be heard telling Pumpkin to shut up.

"Pretty exciting isn't she?" said Tootsie sitting up.

"I wonder if she always comes in like that," wondered Tootsie Wootsie, "if she does then we're in for a hard time!"

After half an hour or so the house went quiet and Grace's foot steps could be heard coming up the hall.

"Play dead!" Whispered Tootsie Wootsie to Tootsie.

When Grace walked into the room, she was amazed and shocked to see two dead little fish with their tongues grossly hanging out of their mouths, lying on the bench.

"Good Grief!" Almost screeched Grace, "What are these?"

Grace wasn't sure what to do, but she wasn't given any time to figure out either. The next thing that happened half gave Grace a heart attack, for one of the supposedly dead fish suddenly jumped up and said, "Howdy chum, know the shortest way to Tipper-weary?"

Then the other fish stood to attention and saluted and shouted "Hi-yah!"

Grace was so taken aback that she wondered for a second if she was still on earth.

"We're fish!" said Tootsie.

Then the two fish stood in line and begun their introduction.

"I'm Tootsie," said one.

"...and I'm Tootsie Wootsie"

"So I'm Tootsie, not Tootsie Wootsie"

"and I'm Tootsie Wootsie, not Tootsie"

Then the two fish said together, "Ok?"

Grace just stared at them in utmost astonishment, so the fish continued, "Can we stay?"

Then, without quite knowing why, Grace just said, "Well, sure."

Then Tootsie and Tootsie Wootsie did not wait for a minute longer, they jumped onto the ground and ran out of sight.

Grace stood there absolutely amazed, then after a while, she shook her head as if to try and gain her senses, then turned to the bench where the fish had been. She wondered if she had really seen those two fish, there was no evidence there except for one thing - someone had been trying to get into the left over baby food Grace had given to Bert.

Grace sat down and wondered if she was ever going to see those two fish again, but we'll certainly find out, won't we?