The Sound in the Shell, page 7 of 12

Pip sits in his scarf inside the burrow among the four marked leaves laid out around him, the curled shell held to the side of his head with both front limbs and his eyes closed, one pale wedge of light lying in from the open door.

He took up the shell, the first given thing, and held it to his ear with both arms.

The sea was going inside it, whole and unhurried, under everything, kept.

She had given it to him years before he would need it.

© 2026 A.J.Sharpe