Day 17.

I want to write a short story, but I'm not really a writer. I am just going to share what the story is about. I am not quite sure yet who the characters are going to be, they haven't quite come to life. There are lots of shells, lots and lots of shells. There is also a girl who when her family goes on vacation to the beach for the summer, all summer long, every summer, walks the beaches every morning looking for a perfect shell. She can't seem to find one and is really quite obsessed with a shell that displays perfection. She does this for years. One year is different though. In between the almost perfect summers, she discovers she has cancer. The next summer, trying to make things seem as normal as possible, the family still goes to the beach, but she doesn't have any hair. She is quite self conscious about not having any hair; however, that was the summer she met him. She was older and had met a boy. You know how the story goes, it was a complete summer romance. She didn't quite know what to do with him or what to do with herself. He just started showing up places she was, and, one day, he simply showed up on the beach as she was beginning her ritual morning walk. As they were walking and talking, she saw a beautiful shell in the sand by the water. Bending down to pick it up, she thought it was going to be just as beautiful and imperfect as so many of the shells she had previously collected. Upon examination, though, the shell she was now holding in her hands was perfect. Her companion asked to look at it to examine it for himself--just out of curiosity. When she looked up to watch a seagull fly over their heads, he quietly broke the shell into two uneven, imperfect pieces.