Page 59 of Pucking Wild

“We’re willing to do the work,” adds Nancy.

I glance up at Mars. “Are we waiting for anyone else?”

“No,” he replies. “This is it.”

I glance around at the four of them: the goalie, the surfer, and the lesbian nature lovers.

And now me.

“All present and accounted for,” chimes Joey, wrapping an arm around my shoulder. “Welcome to the Northshore Turtle Crew.”

An hour later,I’ve forgotten all about the cold. I’m sweating and panting, my feet sinking in the sand as we walk along the base of the dunes. We’re nearly back to the parking lot now. I can see the patio of blue umbrellas marking the entrance.

I don’t know what I expected for my first meeting with the Northshore Turtle Crew, but it certainly wasn’t a grueling hike in deep sand while Joey, Nancy, and Cheryl rapid-fire explained absolutely every aspect of sea turtle conservation and dune restoration. My mind is spinning as I try to hold it all in my head and remember to breathe at the same time.

Fuck, I’m outta shape.

Meanwhile, Mars Attack looks almost bored as he strolls barefoot, his hands in his pockets, easily keeping pace. The crazy Finn is wholly unbothered in his shorts and T-shirt, the wind whipping at his hair.

“So that’s pretty much it,” says Joey, gesturing with both hands at the expanse of beach in front of us. “Any questions?”

We all slow to a stop, and I place a hand to my chest, trying to catch my breath. My Achilles heels are screaming at me, unused to the stretch and pull of walking in this deep sand.

“Umm—I guess—well, I guess I need to know what you all want,” I get out at last, using rooted tree pose to open my chest and take deep breaths.

“We want to save the turtles,” Cheryl replies.

The other two nod fervently. Mars does nothing, standing slightly back from the rest of us.

I look to him. “Mars? I need to know what you want from me here.”

“We want to save the turtles,” he echoes.

I huff a laugh. “Well, you guys just downloaded an hour of data into me and the long story short is that the options seem to be endless.” I gesture around at the quiet expanse of beach. “I mean, is this a conservation group? Beach walks and clean ups and ‘save our oceans’ rhetoric? ‘Cause you’re already doing some of that.”

They glance around at each other.

“Or is this a citizen science group where you’re tagging and monitoring turtle nests? ‘Cause you’re doing that too. Do you wanna raise awareness about turtles and their nesting grounds for the general public? Or is this a civic action group? Are we taking the fight to local lawmakers and beachfront property owners, fighting for change?”

“Well…can’t we just do it all?” says Joey with a shrug.

“Yeah, it all needs to get done in the end,” Nancy adds with a nod.

“In my experience, the fastest way for a nonprofit to fail is for it to try and do too much at once,” I explain patiently. “I just listed off enough work for like five different organizations to tackle over the next ten years. You can do one of those things really well and two of them well enough. If you try to do all five, you’ll just flounder and fail.”

“But they’re all interconnected,” says Cheryl. “We certainly need the conservation education just as much as the citizen action.”

“I don’t disagree,” I reply. “But it’s about specializing.” My gaze lands on Ilmari. “Take Mars Attack here for example,” I tease, flashing him a grin. “He plays hockey, right?”

They all nod.

“Well, to play hockey you need people passing the puck, right?”

They nod again.

“But you also need guys protecting the other players,” I go on. “And you need someone standing in the net. When Mars gets on the ice, he doesn’t play all the positions. He has to trust that other people will fill those roles. He does his job andonlyhis job, and he does it well. We gotta think of this the same way. We need to specialize.”

“I say that’s what we do, then,” says Cheryl, smiling up at Mars. “Let’s all play goalie.”

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