Saturday, November 17, 2007

Gaudy Natica

It was rare to find a seashell on the beaches of Bonaire. There was plenty of coral rubble especially after the latest hurricane wave had swept over the leeward shore and had rearranged so much, both above and below the water. The Gaudy Natica shell that winked up at her in the early sunshine was a special find. Whole and unfaded, it looked fake but when she held it up in the strong sunlight she could see where a shorebird had pecked a hole right into it to devour the original inhabitant. Thinking that it had to have happened recently she raised the shell and gingerly sniffed but the clean smell of the sea told her that any traces of that unlucky mollusk had long ago disappeared.

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