(Author's Note: This is my narrative piece)
"Ew Sophie look at all the disgusting jellyfish bodies!"
"I'm scared, what if the jellyfish turn into zombies?!"
It was the usual day in Myrtle Beach, sunny, mid to high eighties, an occasional breeze that seemed to have the perfect timing....basically the weather could be summed up as perfect. So you'd think that convincing someone to walk along the beach with me would be simple. Wrong. Okay so there were a few dead jellyfish lining the shore, but they could easily be avoided. Where was my family's vacation spirit?
Eventually though I suckered my mom into accompanying me, and I will admit that at first I was pretty grossed out. I was surprised to find that almost everywhere we walked, me and my poor mother would have to dodge the half or fully dead jellyfish bodies that scattered the shore. If only I had known what I would be doing later, than merely walking around the limp jellyfish wouldn't have seemed so disgusting.
One can only be among dead jellyfish for so long before their curiosity gets the best of them. When I bent down to get a closer look, what I saw horrified me. Now I know that jellyfish are relatively lifeless animals to begin with, what with their microscopic brains and digestive systems...can they even see? But at that moment, I didn't really care what they were. What I saw when I looked down at the animal that appeared to be dead, was that it wasn't really dead at all. The bulbous head appeared to be taking shallow and gasped breaths. It sure didn't help that the temperature was slowly climbing as the day wore on, and that it was humid out. I could only imagine how it felt to have your body slowly melt and become one with the sand. Without thinking, I bent down and scooped it up. My mom proceeded to act in typical mom fashion.
"Sophie! What are you doing?! You're going to get stung!" my now erratic mother exclaimed.
"Not as long as you only touch the head." I was delighted to hear that the voice had a British accent. I turned to see a girl heading towards us.
As my mother continued to speak to my newly acquired British friend, I examined the baby jellyfish in my hands a bit closer. I noticed what appeared to be a large tumor on the side of it's quivering body. After a short debate inside my head, I decided that I should let the curiosity get the best of me, and poke it. When the lump began to travel along the side of my helpless comrade, I shrieked. Immediately my mother and the unnamed British girl ran over to see what was going on.
"What is that?!" I held out the writhing jellyfish for them to see.
But before they could answer my question, a giant white crab scampered from the safety of the jellyfish onto my hand. At first I wasn't exactly sure what to do. I definitely didn't want to drop the jellyfish and injure it further, which was a knee jerk reaction, but I also didn't want an albino crab on my hand. These thoughts ran through my mind in a matter of seconds, but before I could think things through any further I sprinted to the ocean and deposited the jellyfish and it's friend. I stood back to look and make sure my jellyfish could swim, and once I realized he could I knew what I was going to do with the rest of my afternoon.
After several hours of strolling along the waves, and gently reuniting the victims to their homes, I returned to my room hungry and fishy smelling. But despite my stomach's pleas for food, and the sea like aroma that lingered on my skin, I was glad. I was glad I had sacrificed my afternoon to save some innocent lives. And yes, jellyfish do have lives. Life is life, no matter if you are a human or an ant. No matter if that life has large purpose or a small purpose. No matter how worthless it may seem. Whether you shoot a gun or squash a bug, you are indeed taking a life. But the same goes for saving one.
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