Cozy Beach Adventures

-1-

I wake up in the morning to a sweet song playing from the radio. I must have forgotten to turn it off before going to bed last night. My teddy bear, Cuddles, is lying in bed next to me. I glance at the clock on my nightstand, and the time reads 8:30. I know I slept a long time, but I don't remember what time I went to bed. I do recall my crewmates and I partying last night on the deck of our ship. I may have had a bit too much to drink.

I get myself out of bed and walk over to the radio on my dresser. I recognize the song now; it's Soulful K.K. by K.K. Slider. I stand there and listen to the rest of the song, since it is one of my favorites.

I make a note to myself to bring my record player onto my ship. I'll have to do that the next time we visit our town. I have a mini collection of K.K. Slider records that I enjoy listening to, as well as records from other artists I have discovered over the years.

I figure that it will probably be another week or two before we stop by our town again. I remember last time, when we stayed for a few days and I got to sleep in my own bed at home. I also took the time to visit my mom, who is always happy to see me.

I realize that I should probably say hello to my crewmates and get something to eat. I wonder if everyone else is up yet, since they usually get up earlier than I do. I recall a time when they came in to make me get up in the middle of the day. I smile to myself at the memory. I've always been a good sleeper.

I open the door and step out into the hallway. I hear someone in the laundry room, so I tiptoe over there and walk inside. Lily, one of my crewmates, is folding our clean clothes.

"Good morning, Gulliver!" she exclaims. "How did you sleep?"

"I slept like a baby. What about you?"

"Oh, me too. I had the most marvelous dream. It was about...Oh my, I seem to have forgotten."

"That's okay. Maybe you'll remember it later."

She smiles at me as she folds my sailor outfit, a blue T-shirt with a white stripe across the bottom. I wear it pretty much all the time. I love it so much that I have three of the same one.

"Well, your shirt is nice and clean." she says, handing it to me.

"Thank you so much. I'm going to get something to eat. Do you want to come with me?"

"Oh, I would, but I already ate an hour ago. Besides, I'm pretty busy right now. How about we hang out later?"

"All right, that sounds good." I wave goodbye and head back to my cabin. I take off my pajamas and put on my sailor shirt. It is warm, since it is fresh from the dryer. Lily does a good job at washing our clothes. She enjoys doing our laundry, as well as other daily chores like cleaning the kitchen and scrubbing the deck. I see her as a big sister to all of us.

I grab my hat from my dresser, a white puffy hat with a blue ribbon tied to the bottom. It's a little worn out from floating out in the sea so much. Sometimes I pin the ribbon to my feathers and it surprisingly stays on, but other times it washes up on the beach next to me. I should probably get a new one.

I glance at myself in the mirror. I am satisfied with how I look today. I wipe the sleepiness from my eyes and head to the kitchen for breakfast.

...

I check the cupboard to see what we have to eat. I see a package of sausages and realize exactly what I want. We stopped by our town a few days ago and bought some fresh sausages from the store. I also found some grubs on the beach. These ingredients make my favorite food, grub sausages.

I take out a sausage and put the grubs on top of it. My crewmates won't let me eat grub sausage or anything with grubs on it in front of them since they find it disgusting. I don't mind though, since I am a seagull and I'll eat pretty much anything.