The Adventures of Harry and Grace (H.S.)

Coral

"Tea, Bob?" Grace asks her stuffed sheep who is sitting at the small white table for afternoon tea. The sun shines through the family room windows as she watches her friend for a moment before she decides his response is a yes. Standing from her seat Grace pours the pretend liquid into a tea cup. "Teacake?" She asks Bob, holding up the plastic pastry. She places one on his purple flowered plate, and adds another to the plate in front of her. "Mmmm 'wishous." She says, taking a phony bite of the cake.

Lifting the cup to her mouth, Grace takes a final exaggerated sip. She lets out a gasp and wipes the imaginary tea mustache from her lips with the back of her arm.

"Watch a moobie?" Grace says to Bob. As she stands, the chair hits her bum, knocking it over onto the floor. She doesn't pay attention to the knocked over seat as she makes her way over to Bob, wiping his mouth with the napkin placed by his plate. "All cwean." She picks up her stuffed animal, hugging him in her arms, and walks over to the couch.

Placing her friend on the cushion, she sets her arms down and throws her little legs sideways onto the couch. Wiggling and pulling her body up the sofa, Grace plops her bum down, reaching for Bob and placing him in her lap.

"Moobie!" Grace says, picking up the remote, looking at it closely. Her pink painted fingernails press the button with the up and down arrows. She looks at the telly to see if that did the trick. But the screen is still black. She moves her fingers to the blue button, giving it a hard press; still no change. Her eyes land on a red button at the top of the device; placing her fingers over the round raised circle, Grace presses down and the screen comes to life.

"Yay!" Grace claps her hands, dropping the remote control on the cushion next to her. Leaning back into the pillows, Grace wiggles her shoulders back and forth, attempting to get comfortable.

"Fissy!" Grace points towards the screen where beautiful schools of fish are swimming Her eyes grow wide as she follows the fish across the telly. She relaxes into the pillows, completely immersed in the story of a fish who is looking for others to be in her band.

Grace giggles as the pufferfish steps up to the mic to audition. Taking a deep breath, the pufferfish opens her mouth, ready to sing, but ends up blowing herself into a big pokey ball. The giggles take over her whole body as the pink shrimp attempts to play the drums, but is instead a huge disaster. "Not wike Sarah!" A squid makes it way on stage and tries to play the guitar but ends up breaking all the strings. "Be sof wike Unca Mitch." Grace tells the squid, and continues to giggle at the calamity that is before her. 

Coral, the main seahorse of the show, hangs her head in frustration at the horrible acts in front of her. "What is the difference between an out of tune piano and a fish." She sighs, feeling stuck in her options for the band.

"Yeh can tune a piano, but yeh can't tuna fish." The voice comes out of the speakers and Grace's body sits straight up. It's a voice she knows, and she is confused.

"Daddy?" Grace looks around the room while the movie continues in the background, but her attention is on finding the voice that sounds just like her daddy.

"Would yeh mind if I sing a song? I saw a sign for band auditions and I thought, why not!" The rainbow colored fish is on the screen. Grace looks around the room again. "Daddy? Hewo?" Grace hops off the couch, looking around the room at the different spots her father typically likes to hide when he is teasing her. And then it happens. Her body stops. She turns and faces the telly as she realizes that the voice of the rainbow fish is one she has heard since the day she was born.

"I'd like to be under the sea

In an octopus' garden in the shade

He'd let us in, knows where we've been

In his octopus' garden in the shade"

Walking towards the music, Grace is stunned at the fact that her father's voice is coming from a place she has never heard it come from before. Her tummy bumps against the entertainment center as she presses her hands against the screen of the telly. "Daddy. I Grwacie!" Grace yells at the film. "Daddy dere?" Slapping her hands against the screen, clearly confused why her father's singing voice is coming from the speakers. "Daddy!!" Grace yells again.

"Hey, Jeff. I'll call yeh back. Sounds like Grace is callin' me." Harry says to Jeffrey on the phone. Jeff had called to talk about schedules, and Harry ended up taking the phone call in his office while Grace played quietly with her tea set. "I'll call yeh back. Okay. Bye." Harry hangs up the phone call and follows the sound of his daughter, who is yelling his name loudly with a tone of frustration.

"Grac..." Harry stops in his tracks as he enters the family room. His daughter is standing on her small chair, mouth pressed against the television screen, and she is yelling his name as loudly as she possibly can. "Gracie Bug," Harry's voice is soft so he doesn't startle his little one who is already confused. The yelling stops as Grace pauses. She turns her head, noticing that Harry is standing behind the couch. She looks at the telly, then back to her father. Harry gives her a small wave; his smile is big and his dimple is deep as he finds it slightly funny that she is confused that his voice in an a movie. She looks at the telly again, pointing to the rainbow fish.

"Daddy." Grace says, then turns her body towards Harry. "Daddy?" Grace points to him. Doing the action again, Grace attempts to connect what is going on.  "Daddy." Grace points at the fish on the screen once more.

"Yes. That's daddy." Harry says as he comes up next to her. Helping Grace down from the chair safely, he picks his daughter up, and takes her to the couch, wrapping her in a cuddle.

"Daddy, fiss?" Grace asks, her eyebrows crinkle, still a little bit lost about what is going on. Harry lifts the remote and pauses the movie.

"Mmmhmm. Just like daddy sings songs on here." Harry points to his phone, knowing Grace will understand that he sings music that plays through the speakers. "Daddy talks in movies." Harry points towards the telly. "I was a fish. My name is Albert. I'm a rainbow fish. And that is Coral. She is a seahorse." Grace cuddles into his side, watching the movie after Harry presses play.

The band is created, with Harry as the frontman, and Coral plays the piano. "Corwhow wike Cware!" Grace says.

"Yes. Clare isn't in the movie. But Coral plays the piano like Clare. That's right, Bug." Harry explains how each person of the band is like his band, but they aren't played by those people. It is a hard concept for Grace to understand. But she continues to watch the movie with her father.

The movie comes to an end, and Grace releases a small sigh. "I wike daddy fiss." Grace says with a small smile. "Moobie adin?" Harry can't resist the smile and the fact that his daughter wants to watch his movie again.

"Let's watch it once more." Harry presses play,  as Gracie holds Bob so he can watch the telly.

"Dat fiss is my daddy," she tells her friend, and they watch the movie together.