Magnum Opus III: Soccer’s Soothsaying Star

The sun was setting over the Mediterranean Sea and as Octopus watched he felt very sad. He was sad that he and his cousins had not been able to wear shoes. He was sad
for his cousin Hundopus, who had been converted into a station at Amsterdam. He had heard that his other cousin Milopus was devouring ships and planes in the Caribbean Sea, giving rise to stories of an unseen monster in the Bermuda Triangle. Octopus sighed; all he had wanted was to wear shoes.

A baby dolphin was playing with a ball, near the coast. Ocotpus loved the way it was carefree and was having such a great time.

He kept looking at the dolphin calf playing with his mother – they seemed so happy! Octopus felt a sudden urge to go talk to the dolphins. He approached them, a little unsure of how to begin. To his surprise and relief, the dolphins waved to him, inviting him to play. Octopus joined in and before long he was thoroughly enjoying himself.

Octopus loved playing with the ball and started playing with the dolphins every day. He learned that the dolphins performed at a nearby aquarium, where hundreds of kids and their parents came to see them. There were other marine animals at the aquarium as well, that performed other tricks for the visitors. All this made Octopus very curious and he wanted to visit the Aquarium. His wish was granted when one day one of the keepers from the Aquarium, saw him playing with the dolphins and took him in.

He showed him to the others and everyone thought it would be a good idea to have Octopus performing at the Aquarium. In fact it would be fantastic if they could get the dolphins to play soccer with Octopus as the goalkeeper. With eight tentacles, he did make a lot of saves and a super goalie!

At first it seemed like a crazy idea but it worked. The number of visitors to the aquarium doubled. People from around the world came to see Octopus perform. Octopus’s keeper named him Paul and installed a TV near his aquarium for him to watch soccer matches on. Octopus loved watching the Football World Cup on TV and seemed to have a knack for predicting the result.

The keepers started putting food in two boxes with the flag of the participating teams on them. Paul would then pick food from the box that he thought would win and most of the times he was correct! Paul, the Octopus became famous the world over. The aquarium was so pleased with his success that they got boots made for him…....eight of them for each of his tentacles.

Octopus was beside himself with joy! His long cherished dream of wearing shoes had finally come true!