You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, little shell, she thought. Before she knew it, she’d actually said those words aloud. Here she was talking to an inanimate object, yet not a silent one.  Suddenly she felt a slight movement touching her chest. It didn’t feel like a hard portion of the shell, and it had moved by itself. She suddenly pulled the shell away from her chest and held it to her eyes this time, rather than her ears. She saw a tiny man scurrying around the corner of the shell’s interior and out of sight. There had been a man inside it all along. It was he who had been doing the singing. She took the shell over to her bed, turned it around, so that the opening faced the ground, and shook it gently, until he tumbled out onto the blanket.

“My little marine musician,” she said, “You have a wonderful voice. I’d never have known you were in there, until you touched my chest.”

“It was the way you said you loved the shell. I wanted to physically touch you. When you held the shell to your chest, the opening was out of your sight. I reached out and touched. I hope you didn’t mind.”

“Not at all. Would you like to stay here? I could put you back on the beach, but somebody else would find the shell, and I want you here with me.”

“I do too,” said the little Marine Musician.

“Will you sleep by my ear and sing me to sleep with your lovely tune?” she asked.

He was glad to oblige, and waited for her to position him there, and then began to sing.

“It’s nice, although not quite as nice as when you’re in the shell,” said Surfergirl, “Not that you’d be able to sleep comfortably in there.”

“I could, with the bed of seaweed I pulled into it,” said the Marine Musician, “But I like it out here with you.”

“Why don’t you sleep on my mouth?” she asked, and lifted him gently and rested him on her lips, which meant that she would no longer be talking.

She lay awake, well aware in her own private thoughts, that there was one more reason that she had been glad to find such a small man in that shell. She didn’t think that she should tell him yet, if ever. Why ruin a good thing with spoilers? Yet she did want to find out for herself if things would be as good as she thought. She pretended to fall asleep and then waited a while. When the time seemed right, she suddenly yawned, and the Marine Musician fell into her mouth right on cue. She felt him against her tongue and loved the taste. She’d always like seafood, but this was beyond her wildest expectations. How she easily she could have sat up and gagged right there, until he’d been well and truly swallowed down. It wasn’t out of the question yet, but there seemed such a strong reason not to. She would miss that sweet little guy and his marvellous marine music.