Crabs

(An amalgam of memories and fictions)

“Before and After” task for May 18 LeedsSavages Task.

Before~

It takes a hot hour and a half of I-spy, songs and other games led by mum and dad from the front seat but it feels lots quicker than that. Despite repeated orders that we all keep still, I am crawling on the rubber floor mats playing some silly game with my sisters when I feel the car brakes come on and I hear the happy popping noise from the tyres as they push through loose gravel. As quick as I can I push up onto the seat and crank the window down as the car crunches into slow gear and whines and crawls along the sandy track towards the beach.

The morning summer heat is scattered into thousands of bright dashes blinking through the trees as we bounce over the rutted track. “ONE”!, we all cry out as the floor of the car strikes a rock higher than we can clear. It is a silly game, but one we play every time we come. The number of bumps can sometimes tell if anyone else has got to our beach before us today. From the back seat we crane out our window to catch sight of the sea or the beach through breaks in the undergrowth. The smell of the trees mixed with the sea is a dizzy promise for the fun to come. “TWO”!, we now scream as this is the minimum bump count for the times when we have arrived here first. “I hope the soldier crabs are out” gleams Julie, “Will the tide be low? Do we know? Will it?”

The reply from the front is cut short by a long scrape of the underneath and a sideways slide of the car followed by a cheer from us in the back. We are going to be here alone, its almost certain.

Around one more bend in the track we are into the open bit of space where we park up and we can see our campfire stones are all still here. We drive very slowly to our shaded parking spot and are told again and again to stay in the car until it stops. This is the hardest time ‘cos now we can see the water and can’t wait to find out what our beach has given us today. The car draws to a stop painfully slowly and we are teased as it crawls a little bit more and then a bit more until our cries of “Stop the Car!” become too shrill and mum’s instruction is given to let us out.
We throw open the back doors and flee on warm sand giving way under our weight. We dash towards the sea, the small stones and shells causing no problem to our summer-tough feet. “Go slow” yells Julie as Helen and I now race each other over the squeaking sand. We look up to see a shiny moving silver-blue sheet of a million soldier crabs chasing the waves in and out and catching the sea lice they eat. This is a treasure for Julie who loves the out-tide for this once a day show. The crabs are harmless wire legged little things about the size of a marble with tiny nippers they use to catch their food and dig themselves into the sand. The beach at the tide mark is like moon craters with all their holes, and the sand is full of millions of tiny claw marks they’ve made. The three of us sit and watch them for a while, occasionally walking into their midst to see them scatter and burrow frantically. By sitting still we find our selves surrounded by the sparkling little things all busying themselves and taking no notice of us. I soon tire of this and I dash through them into the sea to look for the schools of little fish I know will be just beneath the wavelets about four yards out. I love feeling them brush the water past my legs as they swim backwards and forwards, the salt stings my eyes but I can see them underwater if I hold my breath and stay really still.

I look up and see that Helen has headed off to her pool further down in the long outcrop of rocks. I go back to Julie and ask if she wants to go to the old ship at the other end of our beach. She agrees. Her crabs are mostly finished and have returned to their holes to wait for the next tide.

The ship traps lots of shells and washed up stuff we try to collect. Its far too soon when we hear the car horn for lunch. It blows again more urgently and we head back to sausages sizzling slowly, bread that has been baked in foil next to the fire and there’s a big fruit cake wrapped in greased paper..

After lunch we listen to a story about sailors and islands. Julie and I fall asleep and when we wake up we are covered in the picnic blanket and the fire is out and smoldering under a layer of sand. Going back to the beach we see Helen is back at her rock pool watching from above now as the waves take it back until tomorrow. We know we will all be gathered up soon and there is only a little time left for us to enjoy the surf which is only just now getting big enough to slide into shore on.

After ~

“Yeah, and like it’s not even half a DVD to get there.
I log on in the car and game with someone ‘cos, like even when we get there, it takes like forever to find a spot in the multi-level. And we have to 'stay in the car', driving around in circles looking to park it.
So that we all know where it is.
I don’t know why, like, we’re never allowed to get separated. Today they let me bring my phone though, so like, I’m not that bothered.
Anyway, we only ever go to the Crab cafe for fish and chips.
Sometimes we might go for a swim but there is too much poop in the water today so it’s just going to be lunch, and like probably we’ll be dragged to look at the crap Aquarium with the wrecked boat in it..
These days are like the biggest wank.
We only ever come here because mum was made to when she was a kid.”