“Seashells”

Author’s Note: This is a Take Ten to Write story and has not been proofread for errors. If I feel inspired or if there’s interest in the story, I’ll post a revised, edited, and extended version at a later date. Happy reading!

I used to enjoy collecting seashells. I collected red and orange and purple and brown ones. Basically every colour I could find, I would take. I made an organized mural of my shells and displayed it in the main hall of my home.

It all ended when my collection was stolen.

I remember going away for vacation for a few weeks. I had double checked my house alarms and everything before going away, and I’d asked my neighbours to keep an eye on my house too. I even put down the safety guard over my mural–since it was the most valuable item in my house, I wanted to make extra sure that it would be safe while I was away.

But, as you know, it wasn’t enough. None of the alarms went off and the safety guard was even still in place. But the mural itself was just gone. Vanished into thin air.

Nothing else had been stolen. Just my beautiful mural that I had been planning on adding to when I got home with my new collection of shells.

Apparently, my neighbours hadn’t noticed anything. When I called the police, they basically just told me that there was no evidence of anything stolen–other than the obviously empty space on my wall–and that there was nothing they could do.

That single incident completely discouraged me. Decades of work, just gone. What was the point of starting over if someone might just come in and take it again?

So, that was the end of my seashell collection.

Final Comments: I don’t really have anything to say about this one…

Overall Rating: 😶