Gettin' Crabby: An Unlikely Friendship

I have all kinds of friends.

Sometimes I look at a friend and think to myself, "How did that happen?"

This is one of those stories.
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This week I spent a considerable amount of time at the beach.  One day, while making my way back to my towel from a dip in the sea, I saw a slight movement near my foot.  Startled, I came down for a closer look.  That's when...

 I met a crab! 

Unsure of what the appropriate crab-meeting protocol might be, we stared at one another for a few moments before I did what any curious, self-respecting woman would do.  I poked him.

He didn't seem to mind, so I kicked our relationship up a notch...

The camera loves him.

All this commotion caught the attention of a young girl.  She also decided it would be best to poke him.  In the eye.  Disappointed in his lack of enthusiasm, she finally scooped him out of his cozy hole.  This he did mind.  Suddenly, he was on the move... in my direction!

As I stepped out of the way, he would adjust his course to follow me.  She had made him mad and my toes were to pay the price.  Intrigued by his determination, I decided to stop avoiding it. 

To my surprise, he crept (sideways) right over my toes...

...and then...

...nestled himself beneath my foot.  For heat? For protection? Or perhaps he sensed the connection I felt in the beginning.  It doesn't matter.  For about ten minutes (because how do you walk away from that?!) I was one with nature.  I shared a mutual understanding (I that he would not pinch my toes, and he that I would not crush him with my foot) with a creature quite unlike myself.

And so we learn that friendships can be made in the most unlikely places with the most unlikely people (crabs are people, too) if we will put aside hasty judgements and assumed differences.

We're all on this road together...

THE END