As soon as he had said goodbye to his good friend the Tunny, Pinocchio set off, groping his way through that darkness, and, feeling his way along inside the Shark's body, he made for that little glimmer of light he could see flickering far, far away, one step after another.
And as he walked he felt his feet splashing in a puddle of greasy, slippery water, and that water had such a sharp smell of fried fish that he felt as if he were in the middle of Lent.
And the further he went, the brighter and clearer the light became: until, walking and walking, at last he got there: and when he got there.... what did he find? I'll give you a thousand guesses: he found a little table laid for a meal, with a lighted candle stuck in a green glass bottle on it, and sitting at the table a little old man, all white, as if he were made of snow or whipped cream; and he sat there munching some little live fish, so very much alive that sometimes, while he was eating them, they even jumped out of his mouth.
At that sight poor Pinocchio felt a joy so great and so unexpected that he very nearly went out of his mind. He wanted to laugh, he wanted to cry, he wanted to say a whole heap of things; and instead he only whimpered confusedly and stammered broken, muddled words. At last he managed to let out a cry of joy, and, opening his arms wide and throwing them round the little old man's neck, he began to shout:
“Oh, my dear Daddy! At last I've found you again! Now I'll never leave you again, never, never again!”
“So my eyes are telling me the truth?” replied the little old man, rubbing his eyes. “So you really are my dear Pinocchio?”
“Yes, yes! It's me, really me! And you've forgiven me already, haven't you? Oh, my dear Daddy, how good you are!... and to think that I, on the other hand.... Oh! but if you only knew how many misfortunes have rained down on my head and how many things have gone wrong for me! Just imagine, the day that you, poor Daddy, sold your coat to buy me the ABC book so that I could go to school, I ran off to see the puppets, and the puppet-master wanted to throw me on the fire to cook his roast mutton, and he was the one who afterwards gave me five gold pieces to bring to you, but I met the Fox and the Cat, who took me to the Red Crawfish Inn, where they ate like wolves, and I set off alone in the night and met the assassins, who started running after me, and I ran, and they ran after me, and I ran, and they kept running after me, and I ran, until they hanged me from a branch of the Big Oak, whereupon the beautiful Little Girl with Blue Hair sent a little carriage to fetch me, and the doctors, when they had examined me, said at once: ‘If he isn't dead, it's a sign that he's still alive,’ and then a lie slipped out of me, and my nose began to grow and wouldn't go through the bedroom door any more, which is why I went with the Fox and the Cat to bury the four gold pieces, because I had spent one at the Inn, and the Parrot started laughing, and instead of two thousand gold pieces I found nothing at all, and when the Judge heard I had been robbed he had me put in prison straight away, to give satisfaction to the thieves, and when I was coming away from there I saw a fine bunch of grapes in a field, and I got caught in a trap, and the farmer went and put a dog's collar on me good and proper so that I would guard the hen-house, and he saw I was innocent and let me go, and the Serpent, with his tail smoking, began to laugh and burst a vein in his chest, and so I went back to the beautiful Little Girl's house, and she was dead, and the Pigeon, seeing me crying, said to me: ‘I've seen your father building himself a little boat to come and look for you,’ and I said to him: ‘Oh! if only I had wings too!’ and he said to me: ‘Do you want to go to your father?’ and I said to him: ‘I'd love to! but who will take me there?’ and he said to me: ‘I'll take you there,’ and I said to him: ‘How?’ and he said to me: ‘Climb on my back,’ and so we flew all night, then in the morning all the fishermen who were looking out to sea said to me: ‘There's a poor man in a little boat who is about to drown,’ and from far away I knew you at once, because my heart told me so, and I signalled to you to come back to the shore....”
“I knew you too,” said Geppetto, “and I would gladly have come back to the shore: but how could I? The sea was rough and a great wave overturned my little boat. Then a horrible Shark that was close by, as soon as he saw me in the water, came rushing towards me, and, sticking out his tongue, he scooped me up neatly and swallowed me like a Bologna tortellino.”
“And how long have you been shut up in here?” asked Pinocchio.
“Since that day, it must be two years now: two years, my Pinocchio.... that have felt like two centuries!”
“And how have you managed to stay alive? And where did you find the candle? And the matches to light it, who gave you those?”
“Now I'll tell you everything. You must know, then, that the very same storm that overturned my little boat also sank a merchant ship. The sailors were all saved, but the ship went to the bottom, and that same Shark, who had an excellent appetite that day, after swallowing me, swallowed the ship as well....”
“What! He swallowed it all in one mouthful?...” asked Pinocchio in amazement.
“All in one mouthful: and he spat out only the mainmast, because it had stuck between his teeth like a fishbone. Luckily for me, that ship was loaded not only with preserved meat in tins, but with ship's biscuit, that is, toasted bread, and bottles of wine, raisins, cheese, coffee, sugar, wax candles and boxes of wax matches. With all these blessings from God I have been able to live for two years: but today I've come to the very last drop: today there is nothing left in the larder, and this candle you see burning is the last candle I have left....”
“And then?”
“And then, my dear, we shall both be left in the dark.”
“Then, my dear Daddy,” said Pinocchio, “there's no time to lose. We must think about escaping at once.”
“Escaping?... and how?”
“By slipping out of the Shark's mouth and swimming off into the sea.”
“That's all very well for you to say: but I, my dear Pinocchio, can't swim!”
“What does that matter?... You'll ride piggyback on my shoulders, and I, being a good swimmer, will carry you safe and sound all the way to the shore.”
“Wishful thinking, my boy!” replied Geppetto, shaking his head and smiling sadly. “Do you really think it possible that a puppet barely a metre tall, like you, could be strong enough to carry me on his shoulders while he swims?”
“Try it and you'll see! Anyway, if it is written in heaven that we must die, at least we shall have the great comfort of dying in each other's arms.”
And without another word, Pinocchio took the candle in his hand, and going on ahead to light the way, he said to his father:
“Follow me, and don't be afraid.”
And so they walked a good long way, and crossed the whole of the Shark's body and the whole of his stomach. But when they reached the place where the monster's roomy throat began, they thought it wise to stop and take a look round, and wait for the right moment to escape.
Now you must know that the Shark, being very old and suffering from asthma and palpitations of the heart, was obliged to sleep with his mouth open: so that Pinocchio, peeping out from the bottom of the throat and looking up, could see beyond that enormous gaping mouth a fine stretch of starry sky and the most beautiful moonlight.
“Now is just the moment to escape,” he whispered, turning to his father. “The Shark is sleeping like a dormouse: the sea is calm and it's as bright as day. So come along behind me, Daddy, and soon we shall be safe.”
No sooner said than done, they climbed up the sea monster's throat, and when they reached that immense mouth they began to walk on tiptoe along the tongue; a tongue so wide and so long that it looked like the main path of a garden. And they were just on the point of taking the great leap and throwing themselves into the sea to swim, when, at the crucial moment, the Shark sneezed, and as he sneezed he gave such a violent jolt that Pinocchio and Geppetto found themselves bounced backwards and flung down once more to the bottom of the monster's stomach.
With the great shock of the fall the candle went out, and father and son were left in the dark.
“And now?...” asked Pinocchio, growing serious.
“Now, my boy, we are well and truly lost.”
“Why lost? Give me your hand, Daddy, and mind you don't slip!...”
“Where are you taking me?”
“We must try to escape again. Come with me and don't be afraid.”
So saying, Pinocchio took his father by the hand: and, still walking on tiptoe, together they climbed back up the monster's throat: then they crossed the whole tongue and clambered over the three rows of teeth. But before taking the great leap, the puppet said to his father:
“Climb on my shoulders piggyback and hold on to me tight, tight. I'll take care of the rest.”
As soon as Geppetto had settled himself firmly on his son's shoulders, brave Pinocchio, sure of himself, threw himself into the water and began to swim. The sea was as smooth as oil: the moon was shining in all its brightness, and the Shark went on sleeping so soundly that not even a cannon shot would have woken him.
