at the pet shop

I was waiting for the guy to come around to bag up some feeder fish.  I glanced around and saw at least three families hanging out at the pet shop. This is not the first time I noticed parents using the pet shop as an air conditioned spot for the kids to hang out -- browse, if not buy. The kids seem to really get into it.

This particular visit, I saw a young girl, maybe 4 or 5, and she had one shell up to her ear and the other over her mouth.  She was talking loudly into the shell as though she were on the telephone.

She disappeared around the other aisle, but then emerged again -- this time with one shell. She was talking into it, and pretty soon another voice was behind her.  The older sister, maybe 7, was talking into the other shell.

When they got close enough, I had to ask... are you guys talking to each other? Can you hear her in your shell?

The older one at first said, yes, and then corrected herself.  Actually, she was having a conversation with the ocean.  A long and complicated conversation, I might add.

I leaned down towards her and pointed at my ear.  She held the shell up to my ear.  I heard the ocean roaring, and I nodded.

Yup, she was talking to the ocean all the way from Albuquerque.