Surfergirl reached out from the bed, pulled the curtains open and looked out on the beach below, and the surf. It was almost as if she was sitting down there now and eating him in that location, the place where she’d first found the shell. She couldn’t understand his lack of panic, when she’d made her plan so obvious. Well she’d kept her secret long enough and only just revealed it. Maybe he had more surprises for her too.

She fed him into her happy maw and gagged with satisfaction as the music played on. She heard a slight noise from the shell, not a song, just a rustle. Maybe the seaweed had shifted in a brief draft or something. She would still keep the shell too, even though she never expected to hear another tune coming from the shell itself.

Within the shell, the Marine Musician listened for any movement from Surfergirl. He had returned to the shell with a slight noise of displacement, but wherever he’d gone in the world, that shell had always called him back, because of its own unexplained properties. Would he let her know that the shell was unbreakable? Would he let her know that he was no longer in her belly, but back in the shell? That was a decision for another day.

Surfergirl waited until the weekend came, and then picked up the shell and took a walk on a small path beside the seashore, which linked the nearest beach with the next. She came to a shop she had visited many times before, which bore the sign of its name ‘Ocean Treasures’ over the door. The owner was an old friend of Surfergirl and her mother, and was known to her close friends as The Wise Woman of the Seaside.

“Amy!” said the woman, eyeing the large shell, “How nice to see you again. Did you want me to purchase that from you and sell it in the shop?”

“Oh no, I’d never part with it,” said Amy, “Actually I just needed someone to talk to, Carey. I’m in a mixture of emotions about something.”

“I’ll close up and draw the curtains earlier than usual,” said Carey, doing so, “Now tell me what’s on your mind.”

“I don’t know how to say this exactly, but I … ate someone. He was a tiny little guy that I found in this shell. I didn’t hurt him in my mouth, and I really enjoyed it, but now I sort of feel bad. He sang so beautifully inside the shell when I first found it. I shook it and he tumbled out. We were friends for a while, and then I made up my mind and swallowed him.”

The Marine Musician listened keenly. Whatever was said next could have a major impact on his decision as to whether or not he would reveal himself.

“Do you miss him?” asked Carey.

“Maybe a little bit, but that’s not really it, since most of the time I keep wishing there were more of him, so that I could do it again with another one,” said Amy, “It’s just that I have brief moments of feeling sorry for him, and then I go back to thinking how much fun it was to swallow a completely helpless little guy.”