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Susie’s Shell Searching Adventure /// Chapter 1

Susie the snail wandered aimlessly for many nights when her parents first banished her from their hamlet. She’d sulked and foraged, seeking what meagre sustenance she could to stay alive. At nights she sought cover beneath a shroom or a bush and despairingly retracted into her shell to weep and shiver. It wasn’t until she found Trunky, the American hornbeam, that she began to feel comfort again. She slept without her shell, she built a small home beneath Trunky’s foliage, and found purpose in helping Trunky remove his dead branches. Considering her newly reclaimed comfort and purpose, Susie was quite startled when she was awoken one morning by Trunky.

‘Susie, you’re naked!’ Trunky said. He ruffled his limbs in worry while Susie blinked her eyes open.

Susie rolled out of her leaf, slimed about, and shot Trunky a look of confusion. It wasn’t altogether abnormal for her to wake naked. She didn’t love to sleep in her shell, especially now that she had Trunky’s shelter. As she looked around, however, she realized that her shell was nowhere to be found. 

Susie’s antennae retracted as she realised Trunky was speaking truth. She was, in fact, naked. And she had nothing to clothe herself with. She began to feel the dew pack into her face and rushed back towards her leaf to wipe away the tears. 

‘What’s happened?’ she said. ‘I left my shell right here.’ She pointed. ‘Just as I always do.’

Susie was inconsolable. She felt as though all of her secrets were on display to the entire world. As though she had no shelter, as though there were no more boundaries between herself and the other. 

‘What am I to do?’ Susie said. 

Trunky ruffled his leaves and slapped his limbs together and made a sort of leaffall. ‘It’s okay,’ Trunky said. ‘This happens to me every year.’ He exhibited a bare limb as evidence. 

But it wasn’t okay. Susie was no longer a snail; she was a slug. And she didn’t know if she could accept that. She slimed off of the edge of her leaf and then turned about and reached out to stick the leaf to her underbelly. She twisted about and placed the leaf on her back. 

‘Trunky?’ She said. ‘Would you tie this for me?’ 

Trunky moved a bare limb to tie a knot in the leaf with a few small twigs. ‘You will be missed,’ Trunky said. He understood. 

Susie wiped another tear by rubbing her face on her new shell. ‘It won’t be forever,’ she said, before sliming away to begin her search. 

She slimed for so long she wasn’t sure she had much slime left to give. About two hours into her journey, Susie was forced to stop and tell Trunky that she was fine, and was truly working on leaving. Evidently, she hadn’t yet made it too far. But now she was over the crest of the hill, staring down with the nagging recognition that the descent is always easier than the climb.

It had been roughly a day and Susie found that she was feeling hungry. She veered away from her strait to a narrow cluster of plants. She saw a mushroom and situated herself atop it to eat.

‘Whyyyyyyyyyyyy,” Susie heard someone say.

She nearly fell off of her shroom if not for her slime that kept her stuck. She looked about and saw, moving slowly towards her, a rather hopeless looking slug. Susie said, ‘I’m sorry?’

The slug said, ‘I’ve been after that shroom for forever.’

Susie felt bad. She asked the slug for her name, Mel, and volunteered to split the tasty shroom. A whole shroom, Susie said, would surely incapacitate her. Mel thanked her, perked up, and continued her striving towards the shroom.

‘Cute sash,’ Mel said, as she came closer.

Susie bent one of her antennae in half. Confusion.

‘The leaf,’ Mel said.

‘Oh, it’s..’ Susie’s whole demeanour changed. ‘It’s not a sash,’ she said.

‘I’m sorry,’ Mel said. ‘I shouldn’t have assumed. It’s still cute.’

Susie looked a little happier. She moved to the side of the shroom to make room for Mel, who slimed her way atop. They ate like this for a brief moment, slug by slug, until Susie said, quietly, ‘Someone took my shell.’

Mel nearly expelled the mushy shroom in her mouth. ‘You’re a snail?’ she said. ‘I’m so sorry. What ever happened?’

Susie’s antennae dipped. ‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘I woke up and it wasn’t there. Like someone came and stole it in the night.’

‘Who would steal a shell?’ Mel said. Susie didn’t respond. 

They kept eating until they reached the end of the shroom. Then Susie slimed back towards the road. She was wobbly, shaky, in need of sleep. But she was determined to push forward.

Mel said, ‘Where are you going? It’s late.’ She had moved beneath the foliage of a small, green bush and was beckoning Susie towards her like a parent welcoming their child off the school bus. 

‘I have to go,’ Susie said. ‘I have time to make up.’

‘Well then, wait up,’ Mel said. With great effort she moved beside Susie and they both began to make their way along the strait that Susie had laid out. 

‘I don’t know why you would want to come with,’ Susie said. ‘But thanks.’

‘It will be an adventure.’ Mel smiled. 

‘You must be a special kind of person,’ Susie said. 

Mel just grinned. If slugs could skip, that’s how she was moving. She had this sort of aura about her. Unplaceable, but captivating. Susie couldn’t help it; she was grinning too. Here she was, without her shell, bare and vulnerable before a new relation. But she was smiling. And they were sliming. And this is what happiness had always been. Together, they could find her shell. Together, they would.

 

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