Tale of a Tortoise Shell.

I went diving yesterday for the first time in two weekends. You could tell some of the fish were still hibernating somewhere distant, away from the potential destruction of typhoon season. The winds and the rain have scared most everything out of the water it seems.

On the day's second dive, the boat captain decided on a slow and easy drift dive, just outside Apra Harbor. They call it Vecky's Wall, and it's not a popular spot. Thank goodness.

Divers who truly love the water leave nothing but bubbles, and take nothing but pictures. Usually, that's me. But yesterday, on that second dive, as soon as I hit the water, I saw the most beautiful tortoise patterned shell I've ever seen. I mean, it was perfect.

No broken pieces, no barnacles, just a beautiful shell. One problem though - something was living inside of it. So, being the selfish person that I can often be, decided, what the hell, I'm taking it. Whatever is in it will probably die by the time I get home. Then I can set the shell on my window sill and enjoy it every day.

Wrong. It's not been more than 24 hours and the poor snail inside the shell is still living. I feel so barbaric, sitting around waiting for it to die. It's sitting in my sink, in what I'm sure it's figured out by now is it's above ground death bed.

Poor thing. Every once in awhile I'll peek at it. It must hear me coming because it sucks itself back into its beautiful shell every time I crane my neck to see.

I feel terrible. Next time, I'm only taking pictures.