it made her nervous to have Jesse and Hailey on the sidewalk so close to the traffic on this road that moved faster than the posted limit most of the time.
Parking at Tug’s was tight. She’d heard it was a popular hot spot with the locals. Someone pulled out of a spot, and she whipped in. Lucky break.
The walkway to the diner looked more like the ramp to a pirate’s ship the way the thick ropes hung between pylons along the deck boards. The smell of bacon and sausage wafting through the air made her think it might be worth a playful sword fight to get inside.
A waitress greeted them with menus as they walked in. “There’s a table open right over there, ma’am.”
“Thank you.” They went over and sat down.
All of a sudden Hailey belted out, “Mom, look! They have shells like the one you found.”
“Shh. Indoor voice, Hailey.” But she followed her daughter’s pointed finger, and sure enough there were several shadow boxes holding all different types of shells containing messages.
She studied the box hanging over their table. The shell in it wasn’t big like the one Hailey had found. It was flat and about the size of a peanut butter jar lid that looked sort of like a scallop shell. The frame was deep and the shell took up half of it. On the other half, a handwritten note was mounted with those paper corners used in photo albums. There was no date on it, but it had the look of having been there a long time.
Dear Tug,
Your restaurant has been our favorite for the ten years we’ve been coming to Whelk’s Island. My wife and I can’t make a trip to that town without a night there. We’d always thought the shells decorating the walls were a clever marketing ploy. We were shocked when we found a shell containing a message in front of our beach house on our last trip. We decided it should be kept in the restaurant, where other people could enjoy it too. Enclosed please find the shell, and a check to cover the framing.
Keep up the good eats.
Stan and Margie Fuller
Charlotte, NC
Inside the scallop shell was the quote:
Stay away from negative people. They have a problem for every solution.—Albert Einstein
From their table she could make out a couple of the other shadow boxes. One shell read, “Happiness comes in waves.” Not all the shells had such poignant messages, though. She laughed as she read the next one. “Sunburn is the way others know you’re a slow learner…and a tourist.”
Suddenly Amanda felt silly for thinking her shell had been special. They were probably mass-produced in China and sold for ten bucks in the souvenir shop.
The waitress came over and poured her some coffee.
“Thank you.”
“Y’all decide what you want yet?” She reached across the table and turned one of the menus over. “Kids’ menu is right here. Mine love the octopus.”
“Octopus?” Hailey looked horrified.
The waitress snickered. “It’s yummy. A big ol’ pancake with bacon tentacles.” She flailed her arms to the side like a sea creature. “Even has a fruit face, and the syrup is blue like water.”
“Mom, can we? Pretty please and thank you?” Jesse asked.
Amanda couldn’t say no to that. After all, she was feeding them caterpillars for lunch. “Looks like we have a winner. What do you recommend for me?”
The waitress leaned back, placing the end of her pen against her lip. “Hmm. Healthy or hungry?”
“Something splurge-worthy.”
“Tug’s sausage milk gravy over biscuits. To die for. How about a couple strips of bacon on the side? We have the best bacon around.”
“Sold.” Amanda stacked all three of the menus up into a pile and handed them to the waitress. “Milk for these two. I’ll stick with coffee.”
“Gotcha covered.”
“Oh, and…” Amanda tried to catch her before she got too far away.
The waitress spun back around, her pen to the ready.
“These shells. Are they part of some kind of local legend?”
The waitress brightened, beginning to talk with her hands. “Oh yeah. Been going on for years. The article down there near the door”—she pointed toward the front of the restaurant—“was from the local paper here, from like twenty years ago. Funny how the shells just show up out of nowhere.”
“It’s kind of nice. I was reading this note. So mostly tourists find them?”
“No. People from around here too. Maybe more locals. I don’t know, really, but it’s been a thing since as long as I can remember.”