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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781491873229 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | AuthorHouse |
| Publication date: | 05/01/2014 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 30 |
| File size: | 4 MB |
Read an Excerpt
Lobby the Lobster
By Debi Costa
AuthorHouse LLC
Copyright © 2014 Debi CostaAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4918-7321-2
CHAPTER 1
Lobby had his first glimpse of the world on March 27th, 2001. It was blurry and beautiful. He reached out of his rock shelter with his long, thin feelers. Everything he felt, he knew. He liked his world. It seemed to be a very old and familiar place.
Lobby came into the world with dozens of brothers and sisters. Most of his siblings did not make it. They would never know that it was possible to grow old. Even his surviving siblings knew they were still too small. They were babies in this great vast ocean. They still depended on the protection and guidance that came from their parents.
Lobby felt safe in his blue, velvet world within his shelter that included guardians. As time went on, however, he couldn't help but reach out for the pink, turquoise, and violet rainbows before him. He watched the slow ballet of creatures in their spirited climbs and graceful falls. He practiced catching the magical stars floating by him. Some were fast, some, were slow. He was as amazed by the acrobatic finesse exhibited, as he was by the ability of so many to disappear with each passing moment. Lobby paid particular attention to how the array of performers, in his ocean show, reacted when the sudden stream of yellow brightness pierced their world. Why was it that some were drawn to that light, and others darted away, all too quickly out of sight?
The small lobsters were taught how to catch the slower prey on the floor. Lobby was growing. He was stronger. He learned how to use his pincher claw and his crusher claw. He would be able to eat. He wanted to meet new friends.
Lobby stopped the next flounder passing by. He asked why he shouldn't swim up towards the light, fast and soon with the others. The flounder advised him to attend the next meeting with the muscles and clams. A confused and dejected lobster began a slow u-turn, when he heard a soft reassuring voice.
A beautiful sea anemone waved all the colors that mattered. She told Lobby to wait, watch and learn. Her gentle voice reminded him of the beauty around him. She prodded him to come to an understanding of why their world was there.
"If we don't know and appreciate our beauty, we will never be saved."
The flowing voice urged the young lobster to have patience.
Lobby knew he was going to do his best to save the wonders.
Lobby also knew he was special. His father was the oldest lobster in the community. Dad was often busy counseling, teaching, and protecting his large lobster family and distant crustacean cousins. Teaching was a difficult job. It was hard to make others listen. Curiosity and the yearning for independence consumed some of his best students. What was up there?
Storms were the vehicle of escape for so many shellfish. Scallops, clams, and mussels quickly took advantage of the strong surge of the tide pulling them towards the exciting, and unknown world of light above. Lobby's dad compared and contrasted the eager and adventurous, with those whom had held on to their homes for many years. So many neighbors could not resist the frightening temptation of a new world. Very few came back to describe what the upper world was about. The friends whom had returned spoke of a very bright light that they were pulled towards. They briefly, saw masses of their friends and family members stranded in a cold, white, waterless world. The survivors gladly yielded to the echoes of their previous life beneath them.
Lobby listened as his father taught him and others how to hold on during storms. His father urged them to stick with their instinctual way of life. He patiently told them that shelter and food would not come easy. He reminded them that food which lay docile within one's reach was a trap. Housing that did not have to be moved, built and fought for, was not meant to be. Survival depended on natural behavior and instincts that existed from the beginning of time. Those who looked for an easy way out found an early way out.
Still, in Lobby's mind, there was no proof of his father's words. Those, whom had left, might have gone on to discover a better world. He could not dismiss the enticing, golden rays, and the many fish happily eating a wonderful meal, as they were pulled up.
The inquisitive lobster continued his pursuit for answers, by seeking out some of the older shellfish whom continually held fast to their ocean floor. Old Clem the clam gave sincere advice.
"Dear Lobby, as old timers, we know when it's time to let go. Winter storms bring so many of us ashore because it's too difficult for us to hang on any more. Some of us have been washed back after seeing our dear friends lying on a world of no water or color. There is nothing but life from even higher up. That life seems to swim without water. They dive down and make a meal of our friends as our underwater predators do; however, it is an unfair fight. In our world, we can burrow, and hide. Listen to your parents, learn how to survive here. Your father is the best teacher you have."
The next morning, Lobby and one of his brothers ventured out from their shelter, to explore the ocean garden around them. There was an ominous feeling in the water; a quiet they were unfamiliar with. Suddenly, there was a thunderous roar and Lobby was knocked back by a forceful surge of water. In the blur of sand and foam, he saw a frightening face with sharp teeth and small beady eyes emerge through the chaos. The immense, open jaws closed quickly on his brother.
Lobby retreated slowly and solemnly from the whirlwind of danger and horror he had just witnessed. Once he was within his safe haven, calmness was quickly restored outside. His mother soon entered with advice and reassurance for her young family.
"My children, the monster fish are our biggest enemy here. Please understand we are fortunate that we don't have as many enemies as others. We are well protected by our shells and mighty claws. Look at your father; he is the king of the ocean. Lobby, I am so sorry you had to witness what happened to your brother. I am very sad, but I must teach you how to avoid this monster fish. You and your brother were still too young to go out on your own. I will teach you how to protect yourself. You are smart. You must take your father's place as king of the ocean."
Lobby stayed home for a few weeks, but he did not like feeling frightened in his own surroundings. He now believed more than ever that there was a better place for him. His mother, and his father, on occasional visits, tried to teach him patience. They assured him, he was in a wonderful world.
Still, unsatisfied, Lobby questioned the biggest and oldest fish that swam by later that month.
"Mr. Bass, why are you still here when so many of your family members have gone up towards the light?"
The grand fish answered gravely, "Lobby, we have all we need here. We have wonderful food and a wonderful life. We hunt for others in order to survive, but we never take more than we need. There is a very strange fish that swims in our world sometimes, and even more often invades our world from above. This fish takes too many lives at a time. It does not care how many lives it takes. That is why I do not go up. Do not trust this creature. It only robs and destroys our world."
Lobby went back to his father. He asked about the strange and dangerous fish that lived in two different worlds. The father beckoned to his son with his pincher claw as he gracefully moved his five pound body across the ocean floor.
Once they were under the protection of their rocky cave, his father laid comfortably in the sand beneath him. He extended his largest claw towards Lobby and pulled him in gently. His voice was deep and his words were slow.
"Lobby, we were blessed with a perfect world. Somehow, everything we need to survive is within our reach. Everything here depends on something else to survive. We are part of a miraculous order of events called a food chain. This chain begins with life that is too small to see, in both plant and animal worlds. The chain proceeds, with a gradual increase in size and defense mechanisms.
The miracle lies in the fact that every form of life is armed with a defense. Some defenses include camouflage, which helps so many of us to play a great game of hide and seek. Another form of defense is the ability to harm an enemy. In the end, our world was created so that we all have a fair fight. What we do with our unique talents is what matters in the long run.
This 'fish', Mr. Bass told you about is not like us. It is called Man. Man visits our world, but it can not survive here. He also depends on the world around him to live, but he is not fair."
Lobby was to discover the world of man, all too quickly. He had learned how to gather his own meals from the vast array that the ocean floor had to offer. He grew accustomed to crawling into rocky caves, where he found delightful meals in many forms.
One day, while exploring and searching for dinner with some friends and siblings, Lobby came across a different looking dwelling. There were no rocks or seaweed around his sheltered prey. Lobby was tired and hungry from his journey that day. He watched his companions venture into similar dwellings for their own dinners.
Lobby proceeded into the lobster trap and enjoyed the tasty bait inside. Feeling content and full, he moved back, only to feel a hard barrier. Lobby maneuvered his tail around so he could feel for the opening he came in through. It was difficult to move. He tried out small, snugly caves before, but the entrance was often bigger than the enclave.
Now, there was no exit. Lobby began using his young claws to escape. He banged and pinched the barriers around him. The familiar and satisfying feeling of a shell breaking in his crusher claw did not occur. Every squeeze was met with a cold, hard, painful, resistance.
Instantly, the world around him was a forceful, swirling, mind numbing, whirlpool. He was swiftly pulled from his innate security, brought on by gravity, to a feeling of no control! Lobby gripped at the stable opportunities availed to him and went with the flow. As if in a dream, he quickly passed through scenes and life he had never seen before. The fish became smaller and smaller and the crustacean life he knew so well, was nowhere to be seen.
LIGHT! VERY BRIGHT! HARD HIT! LOUD NOISES!!!!!! No water ... O.... k. at first.
Lobby was certainly frightened by the vibrating, noise and movement that came with life without water. He searched for something familiar. His claws found the same, thin, hard barriers that could not be broken or eaten.
The sudden pressure and pull he felt on his body made him thrash about in a violent fight for survival he had never felt before. His struggle had no thought behind it. His instincts took over.
His body was grabbed and he continued to reach and thrash. In an instant, his claws were closed. He couldn't open them. He was bewildered and frightened as he found himself back in water crowded with lobsters and crabs. This was not the water he was used to. There was no room to move. There were no rocks to hide under. EVERYONE WAS REACHING AND THRASHING.
"How am I here?" Lobby thought. His confusion soon mixed with an almost docile curiosity as the new sounds around him escalated. One voice made its way over the tidal wave of noise.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Lobby the Lobster by Debi Costa. Copyright © 2014 Debi Costa. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse LLC.
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