Syngnathidae

When I was younger, like in 7th grade onward, I was so embarrassed by my Mom. She was so funny, and always goofing around. My friends loved her!! I just wanted a quiet Mom, one who kind of stayed in the background, like most of my other friends Mom’s. But alas, I did not get this...I was the lucky one.

By the time I was 18 she was so much a part of my friendships that when I celebrated my 18th birthday, with my friends, in Madison Wisconsin, my Mom was invited. When the only cute, young guy at the Holiday Inn bar approached our table we were all anxious to see which one of us he would choose to dance with. Would it be me??? Or maybe Cheryl, or Debbie or Sheila...Well, we were all wrong. He chose my Mom!!!! She is always the one people gravitate to. She is happy and loves to laugh.

Being raised by her I am SO used to her sense of humor. She jokes around and plays tricks. She hides notes and leaves gifts. One year the post office was on strike so she flew to Toronto to deliver my birthday present to me in person!...AS A SURPRISE!! Anyway....

She was here last week. Every morning after coffee we would walk the beach. I would scoot ahead of her to get my long walk in with Retro, while she poked around looking for sea shells and other treasures. Whenever I came back to her she would have a pocket full of things she had found. She loved showing me.

One night she, Maurice, and I are having dinner. She exclaims!!! “Oh my!! I forgot my seahorse on the beach!!” I laugh. She says, “No really, I left it in the sand.” I do not believe her and tell her she is joking with us!. She does not let it rest and goes so far as to want Maurice to drive her down in our Kawasaki Mule to find it. He complies.

I tell them they are crazy, but if they want to go for a ride I would do dishes. Of course they come back without a seahorse.

She keeps asking, “Why don’t you believe me??” I tell her number one, because it is her!! Secondly, I say, IF she would have found a seahorse it would have been the first thing she would have showed me. She explained, with a guilty kind of sly smile, that it was dirty so she wrapped it in a piece of toilet paper. Of course she did!!…NOT!!

The next day her charade continues. She keeps talking about needing to find her seahorse. I walk around naying, like a horse, and making clippity-clop galloping sounds by slapping both hands on my thigh.

When we separate on the beach she says she is going to look for her seahorse. I laugh and head for my walk. Shock of shocks, when I come back she has not found it. What she has found, she points out, is the piece of toilet paper on the beach, surrounded by little tiny foot prints. She had figured out that a small child had found her seahorse. I have figured out she is going to keep this farce going!!!

THEN I thought, maybe she BROUGHT a seahorse with her, one that she bought in some store and is going to plant it on the beach for me to find. This is why she keeps talking about finding the seahorse. This is something she would do. But as the days pass by there is no seahorse. She keeps asking me WHY I do not believe her??? I keep answering that I have NEVER seen a seahorse on the beach EVER!! And, if she had found one that day I know she would have showed me right away!! A seahorse!! Come on! Of course she would have.

Now she is gone. Retro and I walk the beach all alone. He still runs ahead looking for her on our way back, but sadly, she is back in Wisconsin...sans seahorse.

Today Retro and I head down to Keith and Sharon’s house so he can run around for a while with their dog, Dusty. The dogs frolic on the beach. We watch and smile. It is nice. As I say it is time to head back, Keith says, “I am going to walk down to the surf and look for seahorses.” MY MOUTH DROPS OPEN!! I say, “WHAT??!!” He says, “I am going to go look for seahorses.” I ask, “Did my mother put you up to this??” Well, Keith and Sharon both look at me like I have two heads!! “Your mother??!!” “Yes,” I say. “I think she must have told you that a few days after she was gone to bring up a seahorse that you found on the beach or something like that.” Now, I am being looked at like I have three heads! I then explain the story.

Next they explain to me that their neighbors had found two seahorses on the beach the week before. They know it was an anomaly, something to do with the tides, but this is why Keith wanted to see if he could find another one.

I really doubted them. It is too bizarre. I really think they are “in on it.” I let it go…hug them good-bye, thinking of how I am going to present this development to mom…knowing they are all pulling my leg.

I walk up the beach about 300 feet and look down and what do I see. A syngnathidae, more commonly know as a SEAHORSE!!!!!! It does not have a head, it has been broken off, but there is no doubt; It is a seahorse!! OMG!! THIS IS CRAZY!! I turn around to take it back to Keith and Sharon, who are a little surprised at my find. Gees, they exclaim, we were just talking about these silly crooked little guys!!!

I can’t believe I found a seahorse!!!

I am sorry I doubted you, Mom. I am sorry I “nayed” around the house for three days making clippity-clop sounds on my thighs. I am sorry I laughed at you. I am sorry I did not help you look for your elusive seahorse. One thing I am NOT sorry about..is that you are my Mom.


NAYYYYYYYYYYYY