the last song (mileven au)

a sea turtle laid eggs

≫ 5 ≪

The next day, El attempted to be a little nicer, for Sara's sake. She woke up, much too early for her liking. The sun shining through the windows was bright, so bright, there was no way she could go back to sleep.

El showered, then got dressed, deciding to wear a short, black flowy skirt, with a white tank top. She didn't put much makeup on, but usually she never did. She also didn't do anything with her hair, since it was wet and usually looked okay when it dried. After doing everything else she needed to do to finish getting ready, she made sure to put her book in her bag. She walked out front, to where Sara and her dad were eating breakfast on the porch.

"Good morning! I made breakfast, all kinds of breakfast, have a seat!" Jim was extra cheerful this morning and El didn't really know why.

She looked over all the food spread out on the table. Too much meat for her.

"I'm good, thanks though. I'm gonna go for a walk, later!"

She smiled at her dad and Sara, then left.

"She's a vegetarian." Sara told her dad, with a mouth full of pancake.

"Oh, really? Since when?"

Sara had to think for a minute.

"A little over a year, I think."

Jim looked down at the table covered in at least three different types of meat.

"Huh... Vegetarian." He said, mostly to himself. He didn't see that one coming.

•

El spent most of her morning walking on the beach. When she got tired, she would find a shady place to sit and read for a little bit. The beach wasn't as crowded as it was the day before, thankfully, so she didn't have any distractions.

Since she didn't eat much, just a protein bar she had found in her bag, her stomach was growling like crazy by lunchtime. She headed back toward the house, so she could get some food.

When she'd made it back in front of the house, she noticed a raccoon digging around in the sand.

An older lady walking nearby must've noticed the same thing, because she was now standing beside El, watching the raccoon.

"Must've found a turtle's nest." The lady said, sounding a bit concerned. "And it sure is enjoying those eggs."

Enjoying the eggs... what? It was eating them?

"What? No no no!" She dropped her bag in the sand, running toward the creature. El couldn't let that thing eat those turtle eggs.

The raccoon scurried away and El fell down to her knees, where the raccoon had just been, to see what damage had been done. Buried in the sand, was a handful of turtle eggs, most of them untouched, but sadly a few had been eaten.

"Oh my God..." El had to do something to keep the rest of them safe, away from that raccoon in case it came back.

She went searching around the back of the house for something, anything she could use to keep the raccoon from messing with those eggs. She found enough random items that she thought might work: sand castle buckets, trash can lids, even a shopping cart that was left down the road. It probably belonged to a homeless person, but they would just have to get another one, because this was far more important.

•

Sara and Jim were out on the porch with binoculars, watching El move around like a mad woman. She had been out there for an hour and they had no clue what she was doing.