a story about tide pools

I was scared about going to the tide pools today because my brother Tommy told me there was killer snails in there and that a touch from one of them would kill you dead in a couple of hours. so better not touch any of the pretty looking spiral shells, he said.

And i ran out of the room and i called him a liar and then i went over to my neighbors- I’ll call her Fern because my dad just calls her the nice gardener lady and i know that’s not her name but I won’t ask. and i went over there and i asked her about killer snails and she said sure, sure there was but it’s illegal to have them here, as if she’d have them if she could. then she said she tried ducks once but that they ate her baby plants too, little tiny ones she said. she glanced on the ground to see if there were any evasive snails she could step on or maybe a duck to shoo.

But she just had me, so she smiled and said, why honey? do you like snails?

I shrugged and said i didn’t know. and then i thought real hard about snails all the way up the porch and all the while i was getting my school bag ready.

Dad said, hey kid, you ready?

And i said I didn’t know if i wanted to gamble with my immortal soul.

He laughed and said, kid, where do you get these things. there’s no need, he said, to worry about anything immortal.
And i asked what about the snails?

He just laughed and wouldn’t stop laughing except in btw sips of starbucks, and as he said, his flaky, flaky croissant, and did i want any? and i had my arms crossed and my brow knit- so i said no thank you.

He crossed over and opened the door for me and i hopped out without a last look until he called me back and handed me my permission note in full sight of the teacher.

Hey, kid, he said, tidepools are great.

What do you know i said, you've never taken me!

He gave me a sorry smile and said, we'll go this summer if you want.

I shrugged my shoulders and said, okay. i turned on my toes and went to class. and all the other kids were excited and i just watched on- wondering what people meant about nature being warm and fuzzy if snails can be killers- so i asked the teacher about it and she said she’d never heard of such a thing. so i couldn’t figure who was right.

My friend Meghan hit me on the head with her tissue box and my head whipped around so fast i almost fell out of the chair. and the teacher whipped her eyes over our way and gave us one of those looks she was always giving us, as if she'd just missed some sort of trouble but from now on she'd be watching. so i just glared at Meghan and she just snickered behind her tissue box.

What’s wrong?

Nothing i said.

Are you sure? she said.

She looked at me hard, like she always does when she wants to know the truth about something- so i told her the story and her eyes got real big- just then we were all getting up and being loaded onto the bus and we made sure we got a seat together toward the back. Maybe we can ask somebody? she said. and i shrugged bcs i already tried that but it felt good that she was going to help me find out.

We had the window open and slunked over on each other and fell asleep until the bus lurched forward and we were there. It seemed to take forever and just as I was leaning out the window the teacher and the ranger were talking and he pointed this way and that and then we were off the bus and heading for the tide pools. The ranger explained the rules about how to treat the animals that we found and i don’t know why anyone would want to touch them anyway but he was talking to george and billy and everybody knew they liked to be unkind along with a couple of other boys who Meghan said might throw a starfish on her head.

I kept my distance.

Meghan leaned far into the low tide pools--her long brown hair dipped into the water and i told her but she didn’t care. she waved me over and then grabbed my hand and showed me a crab and sea urchin which she said we could touch bcs it wasn’t poisonous. she said she used to collect sand crabs and watch them run in and out of the sand and make holes. i bent down with her but made sure my feet were a firm ways a way from any holes or water.

okay, okay she said and marched up to the ranger without another word. she didn’t like to ask questions- she said once- cuz she said, she’d rather find out on her own. but she drug the ranger over and he was sorta young and old at the same time and had blonde hair sticking out of his hat.

Rubbing the sand off her elbow and face she asked him about killer snails- and a wide smile broke out on his face and his brow raised and he said how do you know about killer snails? i rolled my eyes and Meghan dug her feet into the sand and put her hands on her hips.

Then he said, very seriously, hold on, i’ll be right back.

So he left and then Meghan said, Jolie! we can put our feet in the water!

And just like that Meghan made me forget about tidepools and killer snails.

Then after a while we went to sit down and the ranger was sitting on the rocks and the other kids weren’t asking him any more questions so we came back over to him and he said, well sit down and i’ll tell you about killer snails-

So we stood there and our teacher came over and she told us the ranger had to go and we squinted at her and said, killer snails exist and he told us so.

Just then he reached into his pocket and pulled out some shells and told us about nero-toxins and how they live far from here, like austrailia. And how they paralyze fish and humans only mostly get hurt when they try and touch the shells when they’re diving.

Jolie aren’t they pretty, Meghan said, and she took one right out of his hand.

So the snails here, he said, you won’t find in the water, but in the gardens. And it’s good to ask if you don’t know about something anyway so you don’t get hurt. then he showed us a few black and white pictures and told us about an African snail that grew as big as a foot.

I told him nuh, uh and shook my head.

He said, it’s true and wouldn’t i like to go to Africa to see a giant African snail and i said i would and Meghan elbowed me hard for being a liar bcs she knew. but then she said, me and jolie’ll go. And she believed it too, so I didn't elbow her for being a liar. the teacher, miss ferris grimaced, like she always did, and said it was almost time to go.

The ranger asked us if we wanted to hold a starfish and Meghan nudged me ahead and he placed it right in my hand. Some things you don’t need to be afraid of he said. and i didn’t like the way it felt, but i liked the color, i said. and he said that was as good a place to start as any.