Page 14 of The Shell Collector
Hailey giggled but didn’t scold or correct him. “Let me know if you want help, brother.”
“You’re a good sister,” Amanda said.
Jesse shrugged, then scooped the eggs back into the tortilla with his fingers and tried again. This time he held a hand over the end and looked proud of himself when nothing fell to the plate.
They’d gone through a tricky phase for a while when poor Jesse couldn’t make a mistake without Hailey putting him down or boasting about herself. Amanda was glad they’d gotten past that.
“I can’t wait to collect shells,” Hailey said.
“Me too.” Amanda was happy about anything that didn’t require a bunch of gear to carry. “Go get changed. I’ll get some snacks ready.”
As soon as the kids were dressed and everything was packed, they paraded out of the house, with Denali at their heels.
“All present and accounted for. Let’s do this.” Once she had Denali’s leash attached to his red collar, she opened the gate and they all raced over the dune for the beach.
Maybe it was the low cloud cover this morning, but the ocean sounded so much louder today. She had a feeling it would be a brief stay the way the wind was whipping. The kids ran in circles at the shoreline, letting Denali chase them until he needed a break and ran to lie by her feet.
She got up and met them at the water with their pails. “Y’all ready to find some shells?”
They began scouring the sand. She knelt down and picked up a handful of tiny vibrant-colored shells. Most of them were broken, but a purple one caught her eye. She tucked it inside her pocket while the children quickly filled their pails with shells at every step until their buckets got heavy. When she looked up, she noticed they’d walked farther down the beach than they’d ever gone before.
“Let’s head back,” Amanda said.
Denali lay down in the sand.
“We can’t leave him,” Hailey whined.
“He’ll catch up.” At least she hoped so. There was no way she’d be able to carry him.
“Do you want to stop and go through your shells? Lighten the load by getting rid of a few?”
Jesse lugged his bucket with both hands. “Can’t. They’re treasures.”
“Let me help you with that.” She carried his pail the rest of the way to their beach towels, where the kids dropped to the sand and dumped their shells. “Do you think we need to keep all of these?”
Jesse pulled his shells closer. It was crystal clear he had no intention of letting any of his go.
“I don’t know.” Hailey scooped some shells into her hand. “Most of them looked prettier when I first found them.” She dropped a couple in the sand, then picked up one of them, a sparkle in her eye. “I already forgot I found this one.” She twisted the scallop shell in the air. “It’s like a ruffly potato chip.”
“Half of the fun is looking for them, right? If we collect all of them, there won’t be any for others to find. Maybe we should only keep a couple seashells each day. What do you think?”
Hailey’s eyes narrowed. “How many?”
“Pick out your very favorites, and then we’ll decide together.”
Hailey sorted through hers.
Jesse inched closer, pointing out the ones he liked best of hers, and then finally he moved a few broken fragments from his pile to her discards.
As the kids worked, they sipped on the juice boxes Amanda brought. She took the novel from her tote bag, not expecting to get through but a page or two, but as she’d been telling herself for two years, any progress is progress. And that seemed to apply in all cases.
She’d read straight through to the end of the chapter before the kids finished sorting shells.
“Should we throw the shells we’re not keeping back into the ocean?”
“That’s a great idea.”
They scooped up the discards and ran to the water’s edge, dumping them into one big pile, then raced back.
