Quill’s Very Ordinary Button — Under the warm slap-slap of tiny waves, Quill tucked a flat white button beneath his fin and glided past the coral posts. Read the full story →
Under the warm slap-slap of tiny waves, Quill tucked a flat white button beneath his fin and glided past the coral posts. He wanted to spend it at exactly the right moment, not on pebble checkers, not on snail juggling, and definitely not on Bargo’s “famous” seaweed mustache contest. The button smelled faintly of sun-dried rope, and whenever Quill nudged it, it clicked like a crab wearing tap shoes.
His friends guessed all morning. A great white shark said it was a moon cookie and offered to taste one edge. A whale shark counted the button’s holes, then politely counted them again in case they had multiplied. Quill only grinned. “Not yet,” he said, which made everyone groan bubbles.
Then the tide turned silver, and the button began to wink. It was not a button at all, but the missing dot from the lagoon’s old parade sign: FOLLOW THE FUNNY FINS. Quill pressed it into place, and every fish, shark, shell, and star-shaped badge lined up laughing. If you spot three sharks drifting together, keep an eye out for the tiny circles; one may still click like a crab wearing tap shoes.
