Page 40 of Not So Stranded
“That’s what I said.”
“Okay, hon,” he said with a chuckle. “Thank you for counting.”
“You’re welcome!”
Of course, if Kit went with his children’s accounting of the eggs, this single green sea turtle nest was responsible for producing anywhere from sixty-two to four hundred and eighty-seven eggs. Thankfully, he could also count. And way more accurately, too. There had been one hundred and twenty-two turtles who’d made their way to the water, but Kit wanted to make sure there weren’t any trapped at the bottom of the nest, like last year.
“Oh, therearemore,” Hiaka said, their hands scooping sand from the bottom of the nest. Four turtles blinked up at them. “Poor little things.”
“They’re okay.” Kit held the sand back. “Pick them up and put them on the sand beside you.”
“Buried alive,” they said as they lifted out two wiggly turtles, “and they still have to struggle.”
Kit rolled his eyes. “Trust me, it’s good for them. They have to do this.”
“I’m still surprised you interfere,” they said, setting two more turtles down beside the others. “I’m glad you do, but still surprised.”
Four more little turtles started for the ocean. One hundred and twenty-six.
Kit shrugged. “Every one of them is necessary.”
“And nobody gets left behind.”
They both looked down to see Juniper adding ticks to the paper on Kit’s clipboard, very seriously counting the new turtles. Hiaka leaned down and kissed their sandy little head. As the smallest of the children, Juniper was often last.
And in looking at Juniper, Kit realized Marius was right there, too. “Marius, do your parents know where you are right now?”
They shrugged and edged closer to Juniper, who said, “Mo knows.”
Kit couldn’t find anymore eggs at the bottom of the nest and dusted off his hands. “That’s all of them. Why don’t you two go rinse off? Take Hi-hi with you.”
Juniper and Marius held hands as they tentacle-walked down to the water’s edge, Hiaka following them. When Hiaka looked over their shoulder with a huge smile and their hands in a heart shape, Kit laughed silently and nodded. It was pretty clear after two years that Marius and Juniper were an item. Some ofthe other two-year-olds might have found their mates amongst their peers, but none of them were as attached as those two.
“Daddy!” Aloe hollered from the water. “Hurry up! Zenzi had us follow the babies and we know where all of them went!”
Kit quickly filled in the nest before scrubbing the sand from his arms and picking up his clipboard. Not much was known about newborn and even juvenile green sea turtles. He wasn’t sure this discussion with his children was going to improve that, though he’d happily indulge them.
“Okay,” he said as he sat down in the surf, “what did you see?”
Yarrow jumped up out of the water and pointed, “They went that way!”
Groaning, Aloe shook their head. “Notallof them.”
“Most of them did,” Yarrow said with a glare at their sibling.
“Okay,” Kit said to cut off an argument, “going out into the open ocean is normal behavior, so that’s good that they went that way.”
Clove pointed with both arms and half their tentacles toward the dock. “A bunch went that way.”
After a dramatic gasp Fennel said, “What if they’re going to go eat Larkin’s kelp?”
“Well, they probably won’t eat it,” Kit reassured, “but they may hide in it to keep themselves safe. And what do we do when we find baby turtles hiding?”
“Leave them alone,” most of them said like little robots.
He had his doubts that they actually obeyed that rule.
Oak came up and tangled their tentacles around Kit’s foot. “But what if— What if they get stuck? We can help them then, right?”
