Tess and the Sneaky Pelican — Every afternoon, Tess rattled down Shellhook Beach with surf wax in her glove box and a secret stash of orange slices under the seat. Read the full story →
Every afternoon, Tess rattled down Shellhook Beach with surf wax in her glove box and a secret stash of orange slices under the seat. She liked reaching the surf shack before the tide slapped the black rocks. Until one day, a pelican dropped onto her hood, smelling strongly of fish, and jabbed at her windshield wiper like it owed him money.
“Hey, feather-bucket, that’s not lunch!” Tess honked. The pelican hopped inside, flipped open the cooler with a wicked clack, and waddled off with three orange slices balanced in his beak. Because of that, Tess chased him past the leaning palm, spraying sand in silly little rooster tails. Because of THAT, she found six tiny hatchling turtles stuck in a rut her tires had made the day before, blinking in the hot light.
Tess stopped. The wax could wait. She nudged the surfboard from her back seat, made a smooth ramp over the rut, and rolled orange slices beside it so gulls would peck there instead of near the turtles. The pelican watched, then dropped the last slice like a squishy medal. When the hatchlings slid safely toward the fizzing water, nobody cheered except the waves: hush-ha, hush-ha. Next time you spot that surfboard, imagine it still sandy from the rescue on Shellhook Beach.
