The Gifted Horseshoe Crab

It was a hot July day, but under the water it was perfect,
nice and cool with a little sunlight coming through. Two
horseshoe crabs sat on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, off
the coast of NC, waiting for their Grandpa. “When is he
going to get here?” wailed Herman, the youngest one of the
brothers. The other one shook his tail; Herman was always
the impatient one. “Grandpa isn’t supposed to be here until
the sun is directly in the middle of the sky, he has exactly two
minutes. Besides, he’s coming all the way from Delaware.”
said Archie. Herman just rolled his ten eyes. He always got
aggravated with Archie, who tried to be so exact about
everything, and most of the time he was.

Then two minutes later there came Grandpa. Archie
looked at Herman with, the look. He gave him the look he
gave him every time he was right as if to rub it in, and that
bothered Herman more than anything. But he couldn’t be
mad now, Grandpa was here. “It’s about time you got here.”
said Herman. “Hello child.”

“Hi Grandpa,” said Archie. “Hello child.” Grandpa
said. “Grandpa can you tell us one of the legends of the
horseshoe crab?” asked Herman excitedly.

“Sure, young one.” Grandpa said. “Well let’s see.” he
started. “A long, long time ago horseshoe crabs roamed the
oceans just as they do now. They went around all day eating,
sleeping, and playing. But there was a difference between
then and now. Then they had a special gift; they could
communicate with anything and everything on Earth. With
this special gift they became the smartest animal on the
planet. They knew all the secrets and how to do everything.
The only way the horseshoe crab has survived millions of
years is because, they had that special gift.” “This, my dear
children, is why the horseshoe crab is still around today.”
replied Grandpa.

Both horseshoe crabs were amazed, especially Herman.
“Why have you never told us this story before Grandpa?”
asked Archie. “Because it wasn’t the right time” replied
Grandpa, looking directly at Herman. “Now it is time for
you boys to get to sleep,” said Grandpa. As he passed
Herman he stopped and whispered just loud enough for him
to hear, “I know you have the gift Herman.” Herman froze,
how could Grandpa know? As if he could read Herman’s
mind he said, “Because I have it too, and only one other
horseshoe crab left today besides us has this special gift.”
Herman slowly walked to his bed and laid down.
He couldn’t sleep after hearing Grandpa’s story, so he
got up quietly and went for a walk. While he was walking a
man came and picked him up. Herman was so shocked. He
had never been out of the water before and he couldn’t
breathe. He frantically shook his straight hard tail and
thrashed his ten legs around. What was happening? Then he
was set down in a large white box with water in it. He took a
deep breath; it never felt so good to breathe. “Where am I?”
he wondered.

Then a boy of about 11 came and sat down by the white
box and started poking him. “Don’t do that!” snapped
Herman. The boy froze, wondering who had said that. He
didn’t see anyone so he continued to poke the horseshoe
crab. This time Herman turned around and faced the boy,
looked right at him and said, “I said, don’t do that.” The boy
pulled his arm back so fast he almost knocked over the box.

“You, you just spoke to me.” he stammered.

“I know.”

“I didn’t know horseshoe crabs could talk.”

“They usually can’t”

“Where did you learn to talk to people?”

“I didn’t learn, it’s a gift from the old horseshoe crabs
who have been around since before the dinosaurs. It’s how
we have survived this long. Only three horseshoe crabs left
today still have it, and I’m one of them.”

“Wow!” is all the boy could say. He knew from his older
sister, who was obsessed with horseshoe crabs, that they were
more closely related to spiders than crabs, that they used
their tail to flip themselves over and that they had blue blood
that is used to help save other peoples lives. But he had no
idea they could talk.

“Where am I?” asked Herman.

“You are on my father’s boat.”

“What am I doing on your father’s boat?”

The boy didn’t answer right away. Usually he didn’t care
that his dad used the horseshoe crabs as bait, but he was
starting to like this little one. “My dad is an eel and conch
fisherman and we, um, caught you as bait.” he said guiltily.

“Oh, well that’s nice to know!” Herman said
sarcastically.

The boy felt sorry for the horseshoe crab and started
thinking of a way he could help him.

“Is there any way I could get off of this boat and back to
my home?” asked Herman, interrupting the boy’s thoughts.
“Yes that’s it, I will release you!” Even though he knew
his dad was going to be mad at him, he couldn’t let this
horseshoe crab die. He picked him up and gently put him in
the water. Thank goodness his dad was below deck.

“You’re a kind person, you’ll never know how grateful I
am to you for this.” said Herman thankfully.

“You’re welcome. Good-bye horseshoe crab.”

“Good-bye person.” Herman said and started back
home. As the boy was watching him leave he understood why
his sister liked this amazing creature so much.