Margaret Franceschini 
Seashells 

Cove and Heather first meet when they are ten years old, bonding over a seashell they find on the beach. They each keep half of the shell and promise to meet again the following morning. However, when Heather has a terrible accident and Cove’s family decides to leave, Cove begs his parents to drive around the area to find Heather so he can give her the seashell and remind her of their promise to meet again the following week. Unaware of the accident, they eventually leave without reuniting with Heather. More than twenty years pass before Cove and Heather’s careers bring them back together. Cove is now a spinal cord surgeon and Heather works in cytogeneticist. As they reconnect and reminisce about the day they first met at the beach and shared the seashell, they realize who the other is. Despite the years that have passed, they never forgot each other and the special bond they formed over a simple seashell.