At the Beach

We arrived at Hilton Head, South Carolina on Saturday afternoon and immediately headed onto the beach. It was low tide and my daughter, Natalie, and I were walking long after the life guards put away the beach chairs and umbrellas and after most people had headed off to dinner. We were enjoying the saltwater lapping at our ankles, the end of the day sun, and the solitude of the near empty beach when we saw a flapping sea creature washed ashore. I thought it looked like a shark, Natalie said it WAS a shark. The thing is, there are many kinds of sharks; this little guy was definitely not a great white, he was a juvenile to be sure, and he was stuck in the sand. There was nothing around for me to pick up to use to push him back into the ocean. We saw a family up on the beach, closer to the dunes, they had a net. Perfect. I ran up there and asked if I could borrow the net to help the shark. The mom said it wasn't uncommon for the young sharks to be washed up and that her son would come with us. He did. He grabbed the shark by the tail and set him free in the water.