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Sand Dollars Bring in Gold

March 31st, 2007

The beach was calm; the waves subdued. It was easy to walk up to our ankles and knees in the water. More shells than usual were on shore and Coco was stuffing her bag with shiny finds. Then we came along a sand dollar. It was white and had a perfect imprint of the animal, which looked like a flower, in the middle. I only remember seeing a sandollar once in my life, and it was dipped in gold and I wore it as a necklace.

When we got back to our house, Coco told the nanny about our find. The nanny couldn’t believe our luck.

You are so lucky Coco! She said. My mother told me that you can only find a shell like that once in a lifetime. It is a blessing to find one.

Coco looked as if she had been dipped in precious metal. She glittered with pride and joy. She reached her hand in the bag to reveal her prize. The sand dollar was smashed to itty, bitty pieces. Turns out they are really fragile. Really fragile.

The TEARS!! Oh, the tears. Coco would have cried anyway, she gets quite attached, quite quickly to things. But the nanny’s story topped it. Added that extra zing to her despair.

Our friend, MyBoy (yes this is his real name), came by the next day. He was told the whole sorry tale of the crushed sanddollar.

Oh, those. He said. When the sea is calm you can find them all over.

And the next day we found sand dollars dead; we found them alive. When they’re alive you can tickle their feet, which are like little fuzzy combs, and they move. Coco found four sand dollars. But, she didn’t throw them in the bag. We carefully cupped one in each hand.

Just when you think you’re blessing been crushed on the bottom of a ziplock bag, life blooms hopeful again.