The Princess and the Crab

There once was a girl who lived in Holbrook, Massachusetts. She loved to travel to Boston and visit the harbor. During the summer of 2017, her grandmother suggested she get a job with a friend of hers who runs Save The Harbor Save The Bay. After orientation and a couple days or training, she ended up on the All Access team.

One week, she was working on George's Island. She happened to be very sick this day. When she got there, she took her temperature and turned out she had a fever of 101, and a migraine. Even though there were many clouds, she had to wear sunglasses because of how badly her head hurt. 

On the boat ride over, she became friends with a young lad named Kayleb. Kayleb loved boats and couldn't wait to go fishing. He was only five years old, and had never left the city before. Kayleb and his fellow friends got off the boat and immediately ran to the lunch tables. They ate their lunches at lightning speed so that they could explore the fort before their scheduled fishing time. 

Patrice couldn't wait until her young friends came to fish with her. She'd spent the morning cutting up squid and showing other kids how to hold crabs. She found it very amusing how girls wanted to hold female crabs and boys wanted to hold male crabs. She loved crabs. Such amazing creatures and were so strong but so small at the same time. 

The magical kiss!

It finally came time for Kayleb's group. She'd waited all day to see her friends. They were so fascinated when Max was demonstrating how to hold the rod and cast properly. Kayleb grabbed her hand after the demonstrations and dragged her over to the touch tank. He wanted to hold all of the crabs. In his words, there were "1,000 crabs" in the tank. He asked Patrice if she was scared of crabs. Before Patrice could think of an answer, her friend Vince jumped in and said, "Patrice loves crabs so much she'd probably kiss one!" All of the little girls shrieked and the boys laughed. Then, one little girl whispered, "Will it turn into a prince if you kiss it?".  So naturally, Patrice picked up the largest crab in the tank, gave it a good look, and a nice big kiss!

Sadly, the crab did not turn into a prince, and shortly after had to be returned to the ocean where it belonged. So Patrice didn't have to marry a Crab Prince and all the little children went home happy. But Patrice had done something she'd never done before, which is really the only goal on George's Island.

Until the next crab kiss,

Patrice