I am pleased to report that the Net of Our Discontent lived to see another fishing day, and this one was more fruitful.
I was sitting on the beach a few yards away from the kids, having another “this is the life†moment, when I heard their voices grow louder and more excited. The three of them were huddled together, looking down.
Sure enough, while combing the tidal pools for fish, my younger son had noticed a crab up the shore a little ways, and had managed to reach it and catch it in his net.
Thereafter, a stare down commenced. Boy and crab sized each other up, neither moving much, while the rest of us looked on. Â
Seeing the boy had no intention of backing down, in a move that startled us all, the crab grabbed the net and held fast. The kids, of course, thought this hilarious.
After probably three or four minutes, however, realizing that this tug-of-net was going nowhere fast and knowing that parental approval for a new aquatic pet was nothing more than a pipe dream, my son pulled the crab to the water’s edge. The spell was broken, and the crab released his hold on the net.
We stood and watched as the crab began burrowing himself into the sand,
until we could no longer tell where the sand ended and the crab began.