Page 114 of Changing Tides

“I like shrimps.”

He taps the tip of my nose. “Just like your daddy.”

I smile. I like being just like him.

He lives on the beach but always has dinner with us- and tucks me in bed- before he goes home at night. Sometimes he has a sleepover with Mommy and I hear him sneak out before the light comes up in the morning, but I don’t say anything. I like it when he stays. Nana says one day we will all live together, I just have to be patient. It’s hard.

The soup begins to bubble and he adds the shrimp to the pot when Mommy runs into the kitchen, waving her phone in the air.

“I got a text. The turtle nest at the Thirty-Second Street access is boiling!” she says.

“Boiling? It’s fifty degrees out tonight,” Daddy says.

“Boiling means hatching, silly,” I squeal as I hop down and sprint to the front door to grab my shoes.

We get to see the baby turtles tonight.

“Hatching?”

“Yes, come on. We have to go to the beach,” I tell him.

“I guess the stew will have to wait,” Daddy mumbles and turns off the stove.

Mommy rummages through the drawers in the kitchen and finds flashlights. She hands them to Daddy and asks him to add the red things on them.

Nana comes in the back door with Ida Mae.

“This is so exciting,” Nana gasps.

“Are you coming to see the babies, too?” I ask.

“We sure are,” she says.

Nana helps me into my coat, and we all get into Daddy’s Bronco.

The baby turtles dig out of the sand.

“They’re so little,” I say as I watch another one and another one climb out. “Will their mommy come and get them?” I ask Nana.

She shakes her head.

“No. They’re going to have to find their own way home, and we’re going to help them. Come. Let’s light their way.”

Nana, Ida Mae, and I stand near the water and turn on our flashlights.

Mommy stands at the top of the nest, but her flashlight is red.

The turtle babies start turning around in the sand and walking toward us.

“They’re coming,” Nana gasps.

We watch as each one floats out to the sea to find their family, just like Mommy and I found ours.

I say a prayer and then whisper to the babies.

“I hope you find them.”

Building Castles is up next.

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