Page 90 of Courting Danger

“Will this earn me gooey marshmallow toppings?” Sunshine asked when she returned with a spiral shell that sounded like waves when she held it against Roan’s ear.

“Ohhhh,” Roan breathed, listening to the sound it made. “All the marshmallow toppings. That’s so cool.”

He took it carefully, rearranged the two largest pieces of sea glass in the box, and leaned the special shell against them so it stood up on display.

“Arf! Rrrrruff, rufffff, rufffff!”

Ocean’s barking was soon joined by loud meows, so Roan stood and hurried over to where they were digging, to see what they’d uncovered. Danger slid down a dune, landing with a thud at the bottom and a yip, as everyone, even Papa Pope and Sunshine, gathered around the hole. There, in the bottom, was a shimmery blue glass bottle completely intact.

“Now this is truly an amazing find,” Sunshine said, taking a few pictures before gently brushing the sand from around the edges, dislodging it fully, and lifting it free of the deep hole Kermit and Ocean had dug.

“Mew?” Kermit said, cocking his head and studying it.

“Would you like to know what it is?” she asked.

“Meow! Meow!”

She turned the round bottle over, the base reminding Roan of a bubble with a smaller bubble on top and pointed to the symbol on the bottom.

“This is an Avon bottle,” she explained. “It used to hold perfume. Now it gets to go in the treasure chest.”

She placed it in Roan’s hands and took more pictures, this time of him adding it to the collection of amazing finds.

“Can I bring them all in after we’re done playing?” Roan asked Papa Pope.

“Of course you can,” he replied. “We can even get you a special chest of your own to keep all of your beach finds in.”

“Really?”

“Absolutely,” he said.

“Yay, we get to keep everything!”

“Woof! Woof!” Danger said, bringing something to him Roan had never seen before.

It was so light, he was afraid to close his hand around it for fear it would crumble. “What is it?” he asked.

“That,” Papa Pope said. “It is a sand dollar.”

“Dollars are treasure!”

“They sure are,” Papa Pope said.

“There’s a hole in the bottom. Did something live in here?” Roan asked.

“I truly don’t know,” Papa Pope said. “We’ll have to do a bit of research later and find out.”

“Okay.”

He carefully placed it in the chest, right beside the perfume bottle. They were all so pretty and different. Turning, he hurried over to Danger and hugged him tight.

“Thank you!” he said before giving him a big, wet smooch on the cheek.

By the time they were finished collecting treasures, they’d added a bunch more shells and sea glass, but the biggest treasures of all remained the sand dollar, blue perfume bottle, and the fist-sized spiral shell that sounded like the sea.

Yummy scents had been drifting down the beach for the last hour, all coming from the grill, so they gathered around the sand sculpture for a few final pictures, forever memories of their amazing day on the beach.

Papa Pope had found a shoebox he’d lined with a soft cloth and helped Roan place all the treasures inside so they would stay safe until they found a proper treasure chest. By then, he was getting hungry and slipping out of his little headspace, more than ready to head up to the deck and sprawl in one of the comfy deck chairs so he could eat.