Nerissa’s Tide-Listening Game — Between the shell reef and the far needle rocks, Nerissa pressed her palm to the wet stone and invented a game called Tide-Listening. Read the full story →
Between the shell reef and the far needle rocks, Nerissa pressed her palm to the wet stone and invented a game called Tide-Listening. First, she would hear a splash, then guess what made it before the next wave folded over. Plip was a bubble. Flick was a silver fish. Hush-shaa was kelp combing its long green hair. “One sound at a time,” she whispered, while salt sparkled on her lips.
The game grew wider than the reef. A creak came from tiny sails on the horizon, a clink from barnacles, a soft drum from the hollow shell beneath her. Then came a sound she could not name: whirr-humm, whirr-humm, like moonlight caught in thread. Nerissa held still. It was not under the water at all.
It was her own wings answering the tide. Every curl and loop in them trembled when the waves asked a question, and the beads in her hair clicked out little replies. Nerissa laughed so quietly even the fish had to swim closer. Next time you see the bubbles near her shell, try guessing which one has just asked the sea a question.
