Seamore The Seagull 1a574h

Copyright © 2013 by Frank Jarnot. 135304-JARN

ISBN: Softcover 978-1-4836-8616-5 EBook 978-1-4836-8617-2

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Rev. date: 09/09/2013

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Dedicated to & written with much

love for my grandchildren…

Nicholas

Alexander

Michael

Zachary

A red color sun rose lazily out from the Eastern horizon, casting its early dim light upon the calm waters of the ocean Bay marking the beginning of a new summer morning.

The warm sun rays slowly mixed with the cool air abandoned from the night before, inspiring a gentle breeze to start blowing towards the land.

Seamore, a young seagull, had his head tucked under his warm wing when he first felt the gentle sea-breeze ruffling his feathers. He sleepily peeked out from under his wing at the bright new morning sun and thought to himself, “How good it feels to be awakened by a gentle warm breeze,” comparing his thought and memory to some of the cold winter mornings he had experienced in the past.

Seamore was perched on the top of an old wooded dock piling where seagulls normally stand or ‘roost’ when sleeping, he had one of his legs tucked up and pressed against his warm body to protect it from the chilly night air. He then slowly stood up from his perch, shook himself vigorously, ruffling his feathers, stretched his wings out widely, and then gave a loud screeching “SQUACK!” sound from deep within his throat which broke the morning silence, and startled some seagulls across the bay.

Seamore was like all the other seagulls you may have seen at the beach. He flew around the Bay most of the day searching for things to eat. But, there was one thing that made Seamore very different from all the other seagulls.

Seamore WAS AFRAID OF THE WATER!!!

That’s right, Seamore, a seagull, was AFRAID of water and HATED to go near it! !! Instead of feeding with the other young gulls who flew out onto the open sea , diving into the water, and catching fresh fish with their beaks, Seamore would only walk along the seashore, alone, searching for anything he could find to eat. His great fear of water would not allow him to fly out onto the open sea like the other gulls.

Many of his young seagull friends would tease him about his fear of water as they flew past him on their way towards the open sea to find their first meal of the day. He would watch the flocks of gulls fly by him each morning, and sadly wished he could go with them.

Suddenly, the air directly above Seamore’s head swirled loudly by a flurry of feathers which startled him as another seagull lit onto the same piling on which he was standing, nearly knocking him off his perch.

It was Gilbert, his best friend and playmate!

Good morning Seamore.” , greeted the young gull in a crackling voice.

“Good morning, Gil;” , responded Seamore.

“Are you going to fly out to sea with me today, and hunt for fish ?”, asked his friend.

“No… I don ‘t think I will ,” answered Seamore, and hastily added

“I think it’s going to storm today.”

“Aw, com’on Seamore ,” Gilbert said wi th a tone of disappointment in his voice, “You always have some exc use for not flying out to sea with me. Why don ‘t you at least try it this one time?” he suggested.

“No…, not today,” said Seamore, “Maybe I’ll go with you tomorrow.”

“You ALWAYS tell me you ‘ll do it tomorrow !” responded Gilbert in a cackled tone of resentment. “You always have some excuse why you won ‘t fly out to sea . Why don ‘t you it that you’re just afraid of the water.” Gilbert teased.

“I AM NOT!!” Seamore said sternly, “I…” he stammered, trying to think of an exc use he had not used before, “I’ m not hungry!” He knew he was lying.

“Well I am!” said Gilbert , and quickly added “I’ll see you later…”, and swooped his wings with a mighty push lifting his body into the air, which nearly knocked Seamore from his perch again.

Seamore liked Gilbert very much as a friend . They would always play games together after Gilbert returned from his hunt, or sometimes they would fly down to the dock area to watch the fishermen unload fish from their boats. He considered Gilbert to be his best friend.

Seamore was thinking of what games he and Gilbert might play when Gilbert returned from his hunt as he watched him fly away into the distance, when suddenly his thoughts were disrupted by a loud “SPLASH” in the water near the wood piling on which he stood, as a small flock of young seagulls landed onto its surface.

“Hi Seamore !” screeched one of the young seagulls.

“Are you coming alon g with us this morning?” asked another.

“Let’s go find us a school of fish !”, added yet another gull.

“No…” mumbled Seamore, “I think I’ll just go walking along the beach today.” and added, “I think it’ s going to storm today !”.

The young seagulls looked at each other knowingly, and then started to tease Seamore in a chanting manner. “Seamore’s afraid of the water… Seamore’s afraid of the water…”, they all cackled.

“I AM NOT!! “ Seamore squacked back at them . “I’ m not afraid of the water !” But he knew, down deep inside of himself, that it was true. He was afraid of the

water.

“I’ m getting hungry. “ , interrupted one of the gulls. “Let’s go find something to eat !”

All of the young gull s then rose from the surface of the water with a flurry, cackling a farewell to Seamore as they did , and then flew towards the open sea.

Seamore watched the group of seagulls fly towards the ocean with their white wings silhouetted against the red morning sun. He watched until they disappeared from sight, squinting his eyes from the glare of the now brightening sunlight. He wished to go with them , to laugh and cackle…, and to catch fish. But, his fear of water would not permit him to his friends.

A feeling of loneliness came over Seamore as he watched the gulls fly from sight, and some tears started to well-up into his eyes from the sadness. This s often happened when he watched his young friends fly onto the ocean without him.

“Well.;.”, Seamore thought to himself sadly, “I’ m getting hungry too. I think I’ll try to find something to eat at the fishing pier.”, and immediately flapped his wings to become airborne, and he flew towards the fishing pier… alone.

As Seamore approached the fishing pier, he glided in a large wide circle around it, aided by a now stronger morning breeze.

There were no fishing boats tied to the pier. He guessed they were all out to sea, fishing. However, he did notice e an old sailor sitting on a stool next to a red colored shack near the pier, who was crouched over a wooded bucket he held between his knees, shucking oysters.

“I think I’ll try to get that old sailor to give me one of those fat oysters for

breakfast.” decided Seamore as he gracefully glided down to the end of the pier where the old sailor sat.

Upon landing , Seamore watched the old sailor for a short period of time. The old sailor would pry open an oyster with an odd looking knife, then take the plump juicy oyster from its shell, and drop it into the round wooded bucket he held between his knees, flipping the empty shell afterward onto a mounting pile of empty shells next to him. Seamore watched the old sailor work in a steady unbroken rhythm, and listened to the ‘plopping’ sound that each shucked oyster made when it was dropped into the bucket. Seamore’s beak watered with each ‘PLOP’ he heard. He was now very hungry.

Seamore walked along the pier toward the old sailor, and stopped just a few yards away from where the old man sat, then ‘cackled’ as loud as he could. His course seagull ‘cackling’ voice shattered the quiet morning calm, but the old sailor did not look up from his work, and kept on shucking his oysters.

Seamore then tried walking forward, then backwards with his wings outstretched above him, cackling loudly as he did this maneuver. But this also seemed to fail to get the old man’s. attention. However, Seamore thought he heard the old sailor mumble something while he was bent over shucking the oysters

Seamore tried this maneuver again, this time cackling even LOUDER! Finally, Seamore saw the old sailor stop his work, take the bucket from between his knees, and place it down onto the floor. This made Seamore’s beak water even more with anticipation of getting a fat juicy oyster to eat. But then the old sailor reached down picking up an empty oyster shell from its pile , and THREW it at Seamore, shouting as he did. “GET OUT OF HERE YOU NOISY CRITTER!!” He shouted and threw yet another empty shell at Seamore which bounced with a noisy ‘clackety-clack’ along the wooded pier.

Seamore instantly flew upward from the pier with a flurry of his wings, frightened by the old sailor’s action, and heard the old man still shouting at him as he flew away. “Some people just don’t appreciate my performance.” Seamore thought smugly, as the distance widened between the old sailor and himself.

Seamore was now very hungry, and decided to fly to the beach area where he might find something to eat along its shoreline. When Seamore arrived at the beach, he noticed that the wind was now blowing stronger which made the waves roll onto the shore with a loud pounding sound. Seamore walked along the beach shore, and sprinted in a zig-zag fashion between the waves as they crashed onto the shore. He pranced along the beach in this manner trying to keep his feet dry, while looking for patches of seaweed that may have been washed up onto the beach by the surf.

He found a few small snails in one patch of seaweed which he gulped down eagerly, and then found a large blue mussel clinging to the stem of another patch of seaweed which was partially buried in the sand. He tried to break open the mussel, but failed because the mussel ‘s shell was too hard.

Seamore then ed a lesson his grandfather had taught him, and picked up the mussel with his beak carrying it high into the air, and flew with it to a rocky section of the beach where he then dropped the mussel from a great height onto the rocks below him. The mussel fell crashing onto the rocks with a ‘splattering’ sound breaking open the shell, and Seamore swooped down directly behind it to eat its delicious contents. Seamore truly enjoyed the sweet taste and flavor of mussels.

Seamore walked again along the beach for a whil e after finishing the tasty mussel morsel, dodging the waves as they broke onto the shore, which now seemed to be larger than before, and pecked at clumps of seaweed along g the way trying to find more to eat. But none could be found.

Seamore then flew to the rocky section of the beach to search for food in its tidal pools, where many small tasty sea creatures could be found hiding in the rocky crevices. But the tide was now rising, and soon would cover the rocks in a deep layer of water. He decided to fly back to his perch in the harbor to wait for the ‘ low’ tide which would then allow him to hunt for more food again.

Seamore felt content but still a little hungry when he returned to his favorite wooded piling in the harbor, and he decided to take a nap in the warm summer sun while waiting for the tide to change. As he tucked his head under his wing he noticed some dark clouds forming on the distant horizon, and he felt the wind becoming stronger.

It was mid-afternoon when Seamore awoke from his nap. The wind was now blowing much stronger than before, and there were many clouds in the sky, with some very large dark colored clouds on the horizon. Many of the seabirds were returning to land from the open sea because of the developing storm, and Seamore noticed the fishing boats were also returning from the sea to the safety of the harbor.

Seamore squinted his eyes, and peered strongly at the horizon looking for his friend s to return. But they were nowhere in sight

The clouds grew larger and darker in color as a storm further developed, and the wind felt much cooler as it slowly increased in strength. The waves on the ocean were very big, and some of the taller waves were being capped with a saltywhite dome as they were pushed by the wind which rolled them towards the land .

Seamore could hear the distant rumble of the waves crashing onto the beach from where he stood his vigil. He knew this was the beginning of a very bad storm, and it frightened him a little.

At last, Seamore saw a flock of gull s flying from the open sea towards the piling on which he stood. As they flew closer, he recognized them to be his friends. However,… he noticed there was one seagull missing from the group. GILBERT, his best friend and playmate, WAS NOT IN THE GROUP!!

The group of gulls flew to the piling on which Seamore stood, and lighted onto the water next to it with a splash. They were very tired from flying in the stormy weather. “Where is Gilbert?”, Seamore asked with great concern.

“He’s still out there.” answered one of the gulls, motioning his beak towards the open sea.

“He couldn’t fly back…” added another gull breathlessly, “He hurt his wing on a floating log when he dove onto the water trying to catch a fish!” he hastily added, describing the accident.

“He was sitting on the log, resting, when the wind started to blow very hard, and forced us to return to land.” said another gull.

Seamore was very worried about his friend Gilbert. The approaching storm was churning the ocean into great foamy waves which he saw in the distance, and the wind now made a low moaning sound as it gusted around the piling on which he stood. He had to lean into the wind at times to keep his balance, and to prevent himself from being blown-off his perch. Seamore could also see flashes of lightning in the distance, and knew the worst of the storm was yet to come. “You shouldn’t have left Gilbert out there alone in the storm.” shouted Seamore at the group of gulls, with great concern.

“There wasn’t anything we could do for him.” answered one of the gulls in the group.

“The storm forced us to return to land … I’m sure he’ll be all right.” said another

gull, trying to convince himself, and comfort the others.

Besides, he ‘s only a mile or so from the lighthouse.” Said another gull in a weak attempt to justify their decision to leave Gilbert.

“Com’ on Seamore, you’d better fly inland with us. It looks like it’s really going to blow!”, one of the gulls shouted as the group rose from the water, and started to fly towards the land.

Seamore raised his wings, and was about to fly from his perch with the other gulls, but he paused for a moment, and stared angrily at the open sea. The sea was now a turmoil of driving rain, howling wind , and lightening crashing all about. He knew he could not fly inland with the other gulls, and leave his friend Gilbert out there alone in the storm.

Seamore flapped his wings wildly, pushing himself upward, and flew struggling through the strong wind and heavy rain toward the lighthouse. A place, and point of land where he had never flown beyond in the past.

As Seamore flew past the lighthouse, the storm was at its full strength, and blowing with the force of a Gale. The sea churned wildly with an angry roar, and the wind howled with fury, making a whistling sound through Seamore’s wings as he flew out onto the open sea.

The driving wind and rain caused Seamore to squint his eyelids tightly as he flew, making it very difficult to see, as he peered down onto the crashing waves below him, trying to find Gilbert. Some of the waves were so tall they nearly touched his body as he flew, and then they would suddenly fall away, forming a deep watery canyon beneath him.

“Keep looking… Keep looking…”, he thought to himself as he hunted for his friend. Seamore was now getting very tired from fighting his way through the driving wind and pounding rain, and it was starting to get dark as the day was coming to its end, making it even more difficult for Seamore to find his friend. It seemed hopeless to find Gilbert in this storm.

Seamore was about to give up his search, and head back to land, when he saw ‘something’ floating on a nearby cresting wave. That ‘something’ disappeared from his sight for a moment as the wave fell away, and formed a deep watery valley. But, that ‘something’ came up again on the crest of another wave as Seamore flew closer to it.

IT WAS A FLOATING LOG, and he saw something white in color ALSO clinging to it! Excitedly, Seamore forgot about his tired wings, and flew directly to the log, swooping down to a ‘ splashing’ stop next to it. IT WAS GILBERT!!!

“Gilbert !” Seamore shouted, “Are you all right?”, he asked excitedly. Gilbert looked up with tear-stained eyes, and recognized Seamore.

“Seamore,… Seamore!”, Gilbert shouted with joy, “I’m so glad to see you!”, he added, and then started to sob. “I hurt my wing” said Gilbert, “and I’m having a hard time holding onto this log.”

Without hesitation, Seamore climbed onto the log, and placed one of his tired wings around Gilbert, bracing both Gilbert and himself with his other wing against the log. “Don’ t worry Gilbert,” Seamore said in a comforting tone of voice, “You’ ll be O.K.”. Seamore held this position during the remainder of the storm, sometimes using his wing to shelter Gilbert from the driving rain , and breaking waves which occasionally fell on them.

The wind started to ebb, and became slower in velocity, signaling that the storm was coming to an end.

“How are you feeling, Gil?” asked Seamore.

“I’ m feeling a lot better now…” answered Gilbert, relieved to see the storm was ending.

“I guess that storm was one of those summer type squalls my Grandfather told me about…” Seamore said ing the red colored sun he saw that morning, and the poem his grandfather had taught him. “Red in the morning, sailor take warning. Red at night, sailor’s delight.” he ed.

“Yeh,” Gilbert answered in agreement, but felt a little ashamed for ignoring Seamore’s warning of the storm that same morning before he flew out to sea.

As the darkness of night fell upon them, the wind fell-off to a gentle breeze, and the sea began to settle into a calm. Some stars could be seen ‘peeking’ through the dissolving clouds in the. sky. The storm was over. “How are we going to get home?” Gilbert asked worriedly.

“Don’ t worry Gilbert, I’ll get you home .” Seamore responded confidently.

Just hang on!! “ Seamore shouted as he jumped into the water. “Do you see that light shining from the land?” Seamore asked , looking towards the land.

“Yeaah…” Gilbert answered in a slow hesitant voice, while viewing a brilliant sweeping white light coming from the direction of land. The light would shine brightly for a moment sweeping across the ocean’s watery surface, then it seemed to disappear or stop, and then shine brightly again. The light performance repeated itself over, and over, and over again …

“That’ s the lighthouse,” shouted Seamore confidently, “and the direction of HOME! !” . “My grandpa told me that sailor’s use that light for navigation,” continued Seamore, “and as a way of getting home safely.”

Seamore swam to the rear of the log, and started to push it in the direction of the shining light as Gilbert sat on the log cradling his injured wing. This was a new experience for Gilbert. He had never been on the ocean in the darkness before, and he had never paid much attention to the lighthouse when he flew by it in the past.

Seamore knew it would be a long way to go before they would get home, but he was confident he would get Gilbert, and himself home safely. He seemed to have a new feeling of confidence and courage which he had never felt before. He felt strong and powerful as a whale , and he noticed… his fear of water WAS GONE!! This new feeling made him smile, and feel proud of himself as he paddled behind the log, pushing it towards the land.

Seamore and Gilbert talked about many things during their long trip home, and they planned to go fishing together onto the open sea after Gilbert’s wing hea.led. They talked long about these future trips and planned adventures, until they heard the gentle roll of the waves splashing gently against the shoreline. The were home at last… and safe.

The end