The Perfect Gift

Written for the Daily Flash Fiction Challenge with a word limit of 300.

The prompts: This story must contain the words: mystery, sand dollar, beach

The Perfect Gift

At the age of twelve, Bobby figured there weren’t too many things that remained a mystery to him. He understood math and could, in fact, multiply with the best of them. He knew when he had pushed his mom too far and needed to behave for a while. He could hit a baseball and catch a pass.

And yet, there were still a few things that baffled him.

Susie from the vacation home down the street was one of those few things.

He’d met her the very first day of summer. She was walking their dog on the beach and he was trying to see how big a hole he could dig before the tide came in.

“What’cha doing?” she’d asked. Her voice made him feel strange. It was like the night before Christmas; anticipation of unwrapped mysteries to come.

He’d glanced up only to find himself, for the first time in his life, speechless.

Finally, he turned back to the hole and mumbled an impressive, “Diggin.”

Over the next few days, he struggled to find a way to interact with her. He didn’t know why but he felt an overwhelming need to impress Susie. The problem was that she didn’t seem to be responding to the usual stuff.

She'd run away when he showed her a jellyfish in a Ziploc bag. She'd held her nose when he produced a week-old box of mussels. She’d screamed when he snuck up and placed a small crab on her leg.

Nothing seemed to work.

Finally, he just gave up. He wandered down the beach, with his head hanging and a strange feeling of heaviness in his chest. That’s when the sand dollar caught his eye.

Perfect.

Now, fifty years later, it hung in a frame over their bed.

“Our first dollar.”

Word count 299