car.” “How can a fish be made of jelly?”
They were about to end their Tour de Fronds
when a pair of harbor seals approached the kelp
beds close to where they hovered. Jamie and
the soldier watched underwater and caught a
glimpse of one of the seals capturing a smelt
before disappearing from their view. “Wow!” the
Marine said. “I used to think I wanted to be a
Navy Seal. Now I want to be a real seal, just
cruising underwater for lunch.”
They laughed. “Come on, soldier, we should
start heading back,” the blond surfer said.
The Marine grew chattier on their return trip,
still exclaiming about all the fish he saw. “Ha!
Wait til I tell my buddies I swam with a shark.”
After they rounded the point and were nearly in
front of the lifeguard tower where they had left
their towels, the Marine stopped paddling. “It’s
really cool that friends like you three just up
and helped a stranger like me on the beach. I
truly appreciate it.”
“What do you mean ‘friends’?” the blond man
said. “I never met them before. We’re all
strangers. I guess we saw you could use a hand
so we stepped in.”
The Marine raised his eyebrows, his