The next day, Maria's school was taking a trip to the local aquarium to see the larger ocean life; whales, sharks, and dolphins. Oh my. Pinocchio was allowed to come as well, and was attached to Maria at the hip.
"Toothed whales eat fish and jellyfish, which they hunt by use of echolocation." Maria read from a plague on an open exhibit where you could pet the whale if it got close enough, "Killer whales (the type of whales in this tank) eat other marine animals, including whales."
"Yummy." a girl in Maria's class, Karen said sarcastically with a shiver. Her twin brother, Carson, and his friends laughed at her. Then the group of boys looked at Pinocchio.
"Hey Pinocchio." Carson called to the puppet. "Come here for a moment."
The puppet did as he was told and smiled at the boys.
"What's up?" he asked.
"Your nose," Carson said, "Can it grow? You know, like your namesake?"
"I dunno." Pinocchio told him. "I've never lied before."
"You haven't?" Carson asked in surprise. He looked at his friends, who nodded at him to give a signal of some sort. "How about you tell a little lie right now? No one would care if you do."
Pinocchio wasn't sure and looked over at Maria, who was struggling to kept her glasses on so she could read more information on the plaque. Karen was helping her, much against Maria's margin.
"I guess a small lie won't hurt." Pinocchio slowly admitted. Carson and his friends all exchanged a satisfied nod, and Carson turned to Pinocchio.
"Alright so a lie works like this; you just tell the opposite of what you know the right answer is. So if you say that the sky is blue, you lie and say it's green. Got it?"
Pinocchio thought about it, then nodded.
"Alright." he agreed. Carson and his friends all looking at each other happily. This was going better than they expected!
"So, Pinocchio, is the grass green?" Carson asked. Pinocchio thought about it. The grass was green, but if he was lying he would say,
"No." Pinocchio told them. Then, his nose DID grow. Only by a fraction of an inch though, but Carson and his friends noticed it.
"Do you have wings?" one of Carson's friends then asked.
"Did you do your homework last night?" another one asked.
"Where you a monkey before you were a puppet?" another asked.
"Yes, no, yes!" Pinocchio told them, in order of their questions. His nose grew one whole inch and then some. The boys got very excited at this.
"Do you..." Carson started to say, thinking hard, "Really like Maria?"
Pinocchio thought about this for a moment. He turned to look at her and pointed at her.
"That girl?" Pinocchio asked Carson, who nodded eagerly. "I hate the girl so much, I don't want to know anything about her. She's ugly and whiny. If she was mauled by a truck after I pushed her in front of it, I wouldn't feel sorry at all!"
At this lie, Pinocchio's nose grew long enough that it pushed one of Carson's friends to his feet and kept on going. It finally stopped when it hit a stand with a shark tooth in a glass case that was over three feet away.
"Hey!" a caretaker shouted. "Get away from that!"
"Sorry." Pinocchio said, swinging his face toward Maria and Karen.
"Heads up!" Karen said as Pinocchio nearly hit her. Maria wasn't so lucky and she was pushed into the open exhibit she was looking at. Pinocchio instantly reacted, along with the caretaker.
"I didn't mean it Maria, I didn't mean what I said!" Pinocchio cried, his nose slowly shrinking as he told the truth. "I really like you! I would never hurt you intentionally! Never!"
By the time he and the caretaker reached the open exhibit that Maria fell into, Pinocchio's nose was a little less than a foot long.
"Help me!" Maria cried as she struggled to keep a grip on the slippery edge of the pool. The caretaker quickly assessed the situation and looked at Pinocchio.
"Use your nose." the caretaker told him. "It's long enough, you might be able to pull her back over!"
Pinocchio nodded and Maria eagerly grabbed his nose according to plan, but she was heavier than she looked and pulled Pinocchio into the water as well. His nose hit her in the head and she passed out, leaving her to stop struggling and start to sink into the water like a stone. Pinocchio instantly dived in after her, but trying to catch her was useless; each time he got close to her, his nose would poke her further down. He eventually stopped trying to get her, but he knew he couldn't just leave her to drown. Not again, anyway.
Suddenly, and miraculously, one of the whales in the exhibit noticed the situation and felt touched at how the puppet was trying to rescue his friend to little prevail. The whale positioned itself so Maria was on his back and he floated back up to the surface as quickly as he could. Pinocchio watched in amazement as the whale got Maria back up to the surface and heaved her over the side of the exhibit to dry ground once again. From there, the caretaker took Maria to see if she was still breathing.
"Thank you." Pinocchio told the whale after he had gotten out of the exhibit himself. The whale gave a reply in his whale speak. Pinocchio looked over at Maria to see if she was okay, but her eyes were closed and the caretaker was urgently talking on his phone. A horrible pain filled Pinocchio. She had drowned. She wasn't breathing and she had drowned. She was dead now, just like his father.
Worst of all, he knew it was all his fault.