Intricacies: Part Three

Donax trunculus

It was a rather bizarre sight when the edge of the wave receded back into the ocean and the foam soaked into the sand. Within seconds, two small shells that had been perched beside my right foot disappeared. I watched as a third shell, pale orange in color, wriggled about for a moment and then sunk into the brown abyss. Intrigued, I knelt down and hunched over, watching as the creature moved below the surface of the earth. Another wave soon approached and I kept still, seawater bubbling around my ankles and upward onto my shins, and the bright shells swirled beneath me. But, as the wave withdrew from where I knelt, the clams settled and revealed themselves. I held my breath, unmoving. And then, one by one, the coquina clams disappeared into the protection of the fine Carolina sand, just as they had done a million times before.

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