Saving Clams

It was a mild summer afternoon. Three young adults were in the midst of looking for shells to fill one glass cigar tube when they noticed... the shells were moving! The girl moved closer to find thousands of tiny holes through the sand, and upon stepping on them, realized they were sucking! Clams were down there! As she started digging, the two other followed suit, and the realized that hundreds of thousands of tiny clams lived under the sand! So they dug. And rinsed away the sopping wet mounds of sand to reveal tiny, tiny clams. The girl had an idea, and ran off. She came back with an abandoned water bottle, and filled it halfway with salt water. They funneled the little clams into that water bottle until the water spilled out. However, their fun was cut short as the girl had parked in a 30 minute zone. She took the clams home with the intention of cooking them and consuming the sweet meat.

When she got home, she showed her bounty to her mother and her mother's friend, who was staying with them for an indefinite amount of time. They laughed at her, and her mother told her to hurry and release the clams back into the wild, for they would surely die. The girl told her mother that she intended on cooking the clams, to which her mother firmly objected. Because, her mother said, the clams were too small and would not be good to eat. Her mother's friend agreed, saying there would be no meat in the clams. The girl, indignant, pulled out a large pink plastic bowl. She cut the top of the bottle off with a blunt kitchen knife and poured the tiny clams into the bowl. Her mother told her to hurry up and put them back; she was killing them. The girl asked her mother how she was killing the clams when they had plenty of seawater, plenty of microorganisms to siphon. Was it that the eventual temperature of the water would be too warm for the clams? Her mother didn't respond, and notified her once again that the clams were dying.

Hours passed, and the girl started researching. And becoming nervous. Finally, 3 hours after she poured the clams into the bowl she put on her university sweater, grabbed her keys and, glaring at her mother looking at her amusedly, picked up the bowl of seawater and clam and left the house.

On her way back to the beach, she took a turn too sharply, forgetting the precious cargo. Seawater and clams spilled in her car, and she cursed. She brought her car to the side of the road and pressed the hazard button. The seawater could not be saved, but the clams! She rushed to pick up all the clams that were now wedged in her passenger seat, drink holder, floor... and continued driving. But, she heard sounds coming from the bowl. Terrible sounds, gasping sounds, sounds of clams gasping for water, gasping for life! Rather than turn back, though, she rushed as fast as she could back to the beach.

By the time she reached the beach and checked one last time with a flashlight to be sure, all the clams were recovered. But, they were still gasping, fighting for life. Not minding passersby and lovers strolling down the beach, she ran to the ocean and scooped up a healthy bowlful of water, and set it down on the sand, and watched. She wanted to make sure the clams were not dead, that they were still alive, that they could still feed. And slowly, she saw feet! And two little siphon tubes! More and more began to emerge until she could not tell which clams decided to remain shy. Relieved that less than half of the clams were anything but full of life, she waded into the water with purpose and set the clams free. A young couple passing by snickered.



On a different note, it sucks to be so emotionally attached to an emotional vampire. Pun not intended.