The Little Seashell
“Come look what I found!” the little girl said excitedly.
The little seashell held its breath. Maybe this time.
“Isn’t it the prettiest thing you’ve ever seen?” the girl said from a distance.
The little seashell sighed a breath of despair.
…
The girl visited often, almost every day, but she never chose the little seashell. She only likes perfect shells and I am not perfect. It was a small clam shell that was a lovely, shiny white. But no one will ever notice that, because of that hideous crack down my middle.
The little seashell wanted more than anything to be chosen by a human. It wanted to be carried off to live on a shelf on some bookcase or in a jar in some bathroom or in a fishbowl in some kitchen, but it never was. And I never will be.
…
A long time passed, and the little seashell grew older. Any day now those waves are going to break me right down that crack. So the seashell watched the buffeting waves roll in. And it waited.
Finally, one cold winter day, the splashing waves rolled in and crashed into the little seashell. Then, they rolled back and crashed again. The crack began to widen, and water trickled into the space between the two halves, until suddenly…
the little shell became two littler shells.
Then, each littler piece remained on the beach for another long stretch of time, slowly breaking in half and half again until the little seashell was no more than a little patch of white sand.
…
One particularly sunny day, a family came walking down the beach.
There were two little girls. The first one stomped on the little patch of white sand as she made her way to a perfect pink conch.
The other girl was different. She knew when something was special. She carefully approached the little patch of white sand and stopped a few inches short of its borders.
The little patch of sand that was once the little seashell held its breath. It had stopped hoping a long time ago, but this moment felt different.
…
“Come look what I found!” the little girl said excitedly, “Isn’t this the prettiest thing you’ve ever seen?”
