Shells in the Sand

Having found nothing on her phone that sounded good, Amaryllis put it away. She stood again. Stretching, she began to walk the beach. She soon spotted something a little shiny on the ground. Picking it up, she saw it was a shell. Maybe if she found enough of these, she could make something.

She held it in her hand, now looking for more. She soon found one and picked it up. Two was a great start and so was the third she spied only moments later. She smiled, her shell collection growing. She realized she was carrying nothing to hold the shells in and quickly went back to her towel.

It was still wet, there was no way she was emptying the contents of her bag onto it. She put the shells on the towel before digging her cover-up out. She turned it into a make-shift bag. She put her shells in to make sure they wouldn’t fall out. Satisfied, she went back to beachcombing.

She was quick to find more now that she knew exactly what she was looking for. Her smile grew as she collected. Normally her vice was strictly her books, but something about these shiny, pretty shells brought her greed to the front. She wouldn’t let herself pass up a shell.

In some moments, she spotted sea glass and she grabbed it too. The cover-up was soon heavy with pretty shiny things. She went back to the towel and emptied the make-shift bag into her actual bag and immediately went back to shell hunting again.

She was determined to gather as many shells as she could before it was too dark to find them. She wanted to use them to craft things for herself, her friends, and her imp. She hummed a bit as she gathered more. If she had any excess shells, she’d probably try to sell them to someone. She didn’t expect anyone to buy them, but it still sounded like a good plan.

She knew she wouldn’t get rid of the sea glass she had found. That would decorate her home office. She thought of how she’d use these items as she walked. The light overhead had begun to dim. That in concert with the fact she was finding less and less shiny objects drove her back to her towel.

She carefully pulled out the shells and sea glass, separating them into piles. She took the time to count them after, starting with the smaller pile of sea glass. It wasn’t much, but still enough to decorate her office. She put the sea glass in the bag again. She then turned to the pile of shells. There were significantly more shells and she had known it.

It was almost as dark as nights got in the Burrowgatory by the time she was done. She had put the shells back in the bag. Amaryllis undid her cover-up and donned it. She then picked up and folded her towel a bit before putting it over her shoulder. She closed her umbrella and picked it and her bag up.

She hummed as she walked back home, her crafts planned for the next day. She knew one of her authors would be very happy that this impromptu beach day had kept her from calling him for two days so far. Though he would eventually get the call and his cycle of trying to convince her to ignore the deadline.

Once home, she sat the beach bag on her kitchen island. She walked to the laundry and threw her towel, swimsuit, and cover-up in before immediately donning a robe.