Kidstuff: Mr. Mom

Jenifer S. Coles

12 years old Grade VI

Compostela Central School

Long time ago, in a faraway kingdom, there lived a fairy queen named Fairy Aqual. She had a pet seahorse named Judaliar, who was very bad, selfish and boastful. He liked to fight with the other seahorses and humiliate them.

It was not only the seahorses that Judaliar harassed, but also the other marine creatures. He made everyone’s life miserable. But no one would want to go to Fairy Aqual about it, for fear of Judaliar.

One early morning, Judaliar went out to the village to show off his new outfit. Many female seahorses got attracted to him because of his nice look. He picked up the most beautiful female of the group. “What a beautiful girl you are! Will you marry me?” Judaliar asked. The female quickly agreed.

Just a few days later, Judaliar no longer wanted to see his chosen seahorse’s face. “I always see your face every day,” he told her. “You’ve grown awful and ugly!”

Judaliar let the poor girl seahorse go away from his house. As soon as she was gone, he went to the bar to get some beer to drink. There he saw a sexy seahorse with heavy makeup on her face. He went to her and asked, “You are a very beautiful and sexy girl, will you marry me?”

“Well, yes, of course,” she replied. “But promise me that you won’t leave me.” Judaliar said yes – but he was lying. After a short time of being together, he again let her and their children go away. The poor jilted seahorse cried.

One day, Judaliar went to the school and he met a very smart girl. He quickly told her, “You are the smartest girl I’ve seen in the whole ocean. I want to live with you until the end of the time! Will you marry me?”

The girl seahorse smirked. “I heard about you. You will marry someone, then let her go after a couple of days,” she told him. “You only hurt someone’s feeling,” she said as she tried to turn away from him.

“No, the stories you hear are all lies! Give me a chance to prove to you my sincerity. Please marry me and I promise never to leave you,” Judaliar pleaded.

Smart girl seahorse conceded. But, as she feared, the same thing happened to her. The only difference was that they didn’t have babies because of her suspicion of what would happen. She was being smart indeed.

But Judaliar didn’t know that his junked girl was prepared to properly deal with the situation. She went to the queen fairy and related what Judaliar had done to many girls in the kingdom. She tried to garner strength of spirit to face the queen.

Fairy Aqual got so angry to hear the story. “Where is he? I want to see him now! Find him and bring to me!” she ordered for Judaliar to appear before her. In no time Judaliar was found and brought before the queen.

“I did not do it. You know me, dear queen, I’m a good seahorse!” he reasoned. He had done the same thing with the queen for his other infractions, and the queen always believed him. But it was different this time…

“Liar! You hurt the feelings of women!” she screamed at him.

“I’m sorry my queen, but—“

“No! You are a shame to the whole seahorse kingdom!” the queen said furiously. “And because of your wrongdoing, you shall be punished.”

Everyone around held their breath. They knew that the queen always imposed a fair punishment on any wrongdoing.

Then Fairy Aqual blurted out, “From now on you will be the one to get pregnant and take care of hundreds of babies every time!” The queen tried to contain her emotions. “You need realize to experience motherhood yourself, to experience the great pain and self-sacrifice involved.”

Ever since that time, the female seahorse has been spared of the rigors of childbirth. A male seahorse, now being the one who gets pregnant, has come to be called “Mr. Mom.”