Ficlets

The Tale of the Snail and the Crab

On a hot summer day in the Bahamas, a snail came venturing forth out of his shell along the beach. It being (as mentioned previously) a hot day, the Snail instantly thought that it would obviously be a much more pleasant living experience if he could get to the water.

A crab, sidling out of its hole in the beach, came wandering towards the Snail.

“What,” asked the inquisitive Crab, “are you doing?”

“It being a hot day, I found myself thinking that it would obviously be a much more pleasurable living experience if I could reach the water. However, I’ve never done this before, so I am rather frightened of what might await me.”

“Nonsense!” replied the Crab. “I’ve been in the water before, it’s much cooler there.”

“Marvelous.” And so saying, the Snail set off for the edge of the water. This took several days, but the Crab faithfully followed him to the surf.

Finally, the pair reached the water. Encouraged, the Snail launched himself into the water, shriveled up from the salt, and promptly died.

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