I found this short story while rereading my old posts. It was the first one I ever wrote in English, which is why I’m fond of it. It feels like a children’s story, but has a moral and everything! 🎈We keep old stuff just like we keep old pictures. They're far from being perfect but remind us where we come from.

On a small rocky beach lived an old crab that everyone feared. He was big and strong, but most of all, he was a hothead. At that time he was having a hard time because some seaweed had unexpectedly started growing on his back, and it was getting bigger every day. He'd never asked any of the beach dwellers for help —he was too full of himself— but this time, he had no choice.

A short distance away, he bumped into a shrimp. The shrimp was eating little bits of sea moss from a rock.

"Hi, buddy!" the crab greeted the shrimp, giving him a friendly smile. "Can I ask you something?"

The shrimp was surprised—he'd never seen the grumpy crab smile before. "Well, I guess you can, as long as you don't come any closer."

"Could you please help me get rid of this annoying seaweed on my back?" the crab asked, trying to sound pitiful.

The shrimp stroked one of his whiskers as he thought. Then he asked, "Why would I do that? You'd eat me for sure!"

"Oh, you shrimp are so vain. Everyone says you are so tasty, but I prefer a nice medium-rotten octopus leg by far."

The crab moved a little closer to explain himself better. "Listen. You're misunderstanding me. How do I put this...? Okay, have you ever seen what clownfish and anemones do?"

The shrimp nodded with a bored look on his face, but the crab went on to explain, "It's called a quid pro quo arrangement, which means that if you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours." The crab tried to sound convincing. "Come on. How about it? Are you in?"

The shrimp didn't trust the crab, but he asked anyway, "And... what would I get in return?"

At that point, the crab would have offered him the moon, so he readily replied, "I'll catch any sea creature you want to give you as much food as you need."

"I'm vegan," the shrimp blurted out.

The crab got a little hysterical. "Vegan? Since when are shrimp vegan?" But then the crab suddenly realized the timely coincidence. "Well, all the more reason! You can eat the seaweed off my back anytime. Deal?"

"Okay. Count on me," said the shrimp, and they closed the deal with a high-five. Well, it was more like a high-two, but no matter...

From then on, the crab and the shrimp got along like a house on fire. The crab stopped being "the crabby," and the shrimp got quite chubby, despite being vegan, and they all lived happily ever after.

........... THE END ✨