Jessica's Adventure

"Where have you been so long Jessica?" the young seagull shrieked at her, "I have been waiting all morning!!". Jessica looked at him and shouted back "well, I had to stop and say good morning to the old oak tree, that’s why I am a bit late". "Gosh, the old oak tree" the seagull shrieked back, "he will be there today and tomorrow and the day after tomorrow and.." Jessica interrupted him. "Listen Seagull - it is a nice tree. And he likes to see me. And I like to speak to him, that’s it!. "Ok, ok" the seagull answered, settling down next to her on the beach together with all this family. All of a sudden there seemed to be hundreds of birds surrounding Jessica, shrieking in the wind, all wanting to know what she had been up to. "Just be quiet for a second please" Jessica shouted. And then when the birds were a bit more quiet, Jessica said "why don’t you go and get some breakfast and I will have a bit of a rest and eat my apple and then I will tell you about my latest adventures. " And all the birds lifted, smashing their wings, shrieking "yes, yes she will tell us her story, yes, yes, let us get some fish for breakfast".

The birds took off, leaving Jessica with her long hair flying. Happily she took out her apple from her knapsack, hungrily taking a big bite. She watched the seagulls flying in the wind, spreading their wings, watching the sea for fish. The wind carried them in circles, up and down, and on and off some of them dropped down straight into the shallow sea and gulped their breakfast. Munching her apple, Jessica thought of which story she should tell them. Maybe the one of the bird eggs she had found on the ground and then brought back all the way to the top of the tree (without her mother knowing of course!), or maybe the one about the postman, having brought their mail one day and then the neighbor’s young dog had peed all over his mail bag…. giving him a very bad reputation with the rest of the neighbors… She had to smile, thinking of it. Gosh - he had been so mad! And the little cute puppy really couldn’t help it! And her mother … oh well, these things happen Jessica thought, having a grown-up smile on her face without even knowing it.

All of a sudden all the birds were back. Well fed and waiting expectantly for her stories. But Jessica was up and searching for shells. She had promised her mother to bring back some nice colorful seashells. They would make a picture of them and hang it in the entrance, reminding them always of Jessica’s day at the sea. The sea gulls thought this was a great idea and way down the long beach and searched for shells for Jessica’s picture. The time went by and all of a sudden the midday heat was over and Jessica was feeling a bit hungry again. And what a mountain of shells she had! Pink and blue and green and blue and silver and gold and…. All the birds were panting next to the big mountain of shells with Jessica sitting next to them. The young sea gull complained a bit out of breath "Gosh Jessica, next time you want to come, please make sure we have practiced our marathon-sea-shell-search before so that we are not so tired! I am going to take an afternoon nap now".