My Obsession

I confess that I am a shell seeker. I have no power to control my pursuit of shells. It’s an obsession, one that I make no apologies for, because I hurt no one in my single mindedness.

I have tried walking on the beach without looking down. Trying to power walk is impossible. Running—forget it. When I sit in my beach chair, I look at the ocean or dunes. The second that I stand, my eyes go to the beach surface, and I resume my hunt. As I wade into the ocean, I check the surf. The surf holds many beauties that I retrieve with the enthusiasm of a dog catching a Frisbee. The shells wait for me to find them.

My husband and I four-wheel drive on the beach. I’ve trained him to stop as soon as I see a shell dump on the beach. Before our truck stops, my door is open, and I leap out to start my hunt. He used to wait for me, motor running. Now, he gets out too. I may have passed on my obsession to him, but at least he no longer moans in disgust.

When going to the beach on a summer’s day, I stuff my beach bag with my finds. This requires emptying my beach bag every day so that it doesn’t weigh a ton. I also want to examine my catch, so I wash my shells at the end of the day, putting them on a towel to dry. The picture on the right shows a typical day’s catch.

In the winter, the best time for shelling, I use a drywall compound bucket to store my finds. The most unusual shells appear during the winter months. Perhaps the winter storms drive them onto the beach or when there are few people on the beach, I find more of them. Whatever the case, I know that I have only found Scotch Bonnets, North Carolina’s State Shell, during the winter months. One winter, I found nine Scotch Bonnets after twenty years of finding none. It may have been a bad winter for them. For me, it was nirvana. No matter the cold winds, I don my winter coat and traverse the beach in my quest. Here’s a Scotch Bonnet. I’ve provided a gold measure that some of my fellow writers may know quite well.

What do I do with all of my shells? I wish that I possessed artistic skill. But, I do not. I have ideas of what I’d like to do if I had that talent—so if you are an artist in need of shell ideas, let me know. I have plenty of work for you. When I first wanted to display my shells, I found the cost of display case type coffee tables prohibitive. I had an epiphany in Home Depot one day while looking at the flower pots. Here is the result, which I converted into cheap but functional tables by having glass cut for the tops. From the top down, you can see into them for a peek at my beauties. At twenty dollars each, I had to have two colors! Of course, on top of the shell buckets’ glass tops I’ve displayed more shells.

Does my obsession spillover into my WIP? You bet! Abby Jenkins saves herself one afternoon using a trusty clam shell to fight her way out of a hole when a demon is after her. There’s just no end to the uses for shells. I’m going to experiment with baking in some of them. Crab Imperial might be even tastier served in a shell.

I’ve stuffed shells in every crevice I can think. Here is my nightstand with lamp base stuffed with shells.

Don’t think I’m ruthless. I do have principles. A few weeks ago while combing the surf I found a perfect palm-size snail shell. I tracked it rolling through the water and snatched it before the next wave crashed over it. As I held the shell in my hands, examining it and turning it over, dark and hairy legs popped out from inside its tubular hollows. Shocked, I threw the shell back in the surf with heavy heart. My find was another’s. We scavengers must respect each other. The hermit crab had first dibs on the snail shell. But next time, it will be mine.

Like any addict, my craving has no end. Just one more shell…

Do you or your characters have obsessions?