The Eight-Armed Nanny

/ roughwighting

Octopus, sea creatures, speculative fictionIf only Mombo had not disappeared. If only the best Nanny I had from babyhood ‘til 14 years of age had stuck around for my high school graduation. For my college graduation. And how about my doctorate celebration?

Of course, my doctorate thesis is “The Disappearance of Octopuses from 2100 to …?”

My thesis advisor says my paper should be less generalized and should include an answer in the end. She agrees that I can include the history of the octopus, how they began to reach out to our kind – human beings – suddenly in 2073 CE. How their immense brains and eight arms helped our species fight the BeeJos – the alien bugs that descended on Earth in 2070.

We humans were being decimated by the tens of thousands until the octopuses changed themselves genetically – in the span of three years – to walk on land with us and develop a vibrational device within themselves that killed off the BeeJo bugs in six months. Chat GPT image, vibrational octopus

Fortunately, many of the Octopus families stayed on land, while others returned to the seas, where they preferred to be.

Those that stayed were the nurturers. They became the Nannies to the human babies of the next generation (like me) modeling kindness, compassion, respect, friendship, and love.

How I loved Mombo – that’s what she called herself. Of course, we communicated through sign language and telepathy – another humongous talent that the octopus shared with our race. 

image thanks to Chat GPT, speculative fictionBut 14 years ago, when I was 14, Mombo and all the Earthbound octopuses disappeared.

Some guess that they became frustrated with our slowness. Humans are slow-witted and slow movers compared to the octopus.

But I know that’s not the case. Mombo loved me deeply. Unconditionally.

So my thesis asks: Where are they and why did they disappear?

My advisor says to complete the thesis, I must journey to the seas to find the answer. octopus with woman, Image by Giuseppe from Pixabay

My curious, creative, and clever readers, what do you think happened to these octopuses?

70 thoughts on “The Eight-Armed Nanny”

  3. I have to agree with Brad. Though it could also be climate change and the cooking of the oceans. Or perhaps … appetizers at Mara Lago.

    Sorry, Pam. Brad started it, and gave me my first laugh of the day. Thanks for the inspiring story.

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  6. Pam, I am always amazed at the way your mind works.Of course, they built an underwater city where oxygen was constantly piped in for those who could not transform their lungs into gills. (Do octupi have gills??? Is octupi a word?)

    You are amazing.

    Shirley

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    • I love your idea of an underwater city. Octopuses have gills but some had transformed them into lungs during the Earth crisis and they now needed that special kind of decompression/oxygen room once they returned to the ocean. 🌊 🫁 🐙

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  9. They knew when they came to earth that it was for a particular mission. Some of them were allowed to stay for a few years longer. But the mission had been accomplished, and they were needed in the ocean which had its own problems. When a new mission was born, they devoted themselves to it.

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  10. I am in love with octopuses – they are intelligent creatures and I’ve read stories where they’ve made friends with humans. I will NOT eat octopus. Have you read Remarkably Bright Creatures” by Shelby Van Pelt? It’s a wonderful story and you will love it.

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    • I think the sea is definitely a safer place for the octopuses – maybe us as well. ;-0
      I have NOT used your essay yet; I needed to take two months off from my classes to recover from my nose skin cancer surgery. But I just resumed and next week is all about THE WORD (you’ll get full credit!!) 🙂

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    • My imagination scares me sometimes, Donna (scares my guy even more) but I think it comes from ‘what’s out there’ already in the Universe. Maybe the octopus was whispering to me in my dreams…. xo

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  13. I’d say they’re still here, just activated their invisibility cloaks so that they might better observe us. Which is why they’re here, to write a feasibility study on taking over our planet.

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  14. Love the last line, “I must journey to the seas for the answer.” The ocean is so vast, a universe unto itself…there is so much we do not know. The creatures who inhabit the sea have much to teach us. I have a few pictures in my house of starfish. They have always intrigued me. When I was little, my mother first pointed them out to me at the beach…so beautiful!

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  15. What an imagination, Pam! I think they became fed up with humans and left willingly. But that wouldn’t match with how much Mombo loved you. Brad’s response made me laugh, and I can’t help but traverse down that dark rabbit hole. But on a lighter note, my daughter is in awe of these creatures, their intelligence, for one. They also have three hearts. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if some humans even had one? 🙂 Great post! 🥰

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  23. Hello, this was such an interesting read – creative andthe nanny with 8 arms as hard to get out of my mind because of how functional that would be….

    also, as I read different parts of your post, I kept thinking of when my boys were little and we loved counting the fun octopuses (octopodes?) in the picture book, “The fish who could wish” by John Bush and Korky Paul – if you get a chance to check it out – you should because it is a great picture book.

    https://www.booktrust.org.uk/book-recommendations/bookfinder/the-fish-who-could-wish

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  24. Somehow, I missed this story but glad to find it now. I’ve watched several documentaries on octopuses and they are surprisingly extremely intelligent. More so than many humans. They do try to communicate with us but many are unwilling to realize that probability. Maybe we made their habitat as poor as we have for many creatures and they had to go back to the stars and find new homes in fresher waters with no plastic bottles. It would be a great children’s book.

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