Sea Glitter BY JENN WEBSTER

(Canva art illustration by Jenn Webster)

Joni had been looking forward to her final trip to the beach for the season, just before school starts; throughout the summer, she had been going on almost weekly trips to the beach with her friends, with a few exceptions: One week, Joni and her family went on an annual summer trip to Europe, and one week she went back-to-school shopping with her parents at a shopping center in town. But now, summer was just about nearing its end, and Joni was about to hit the beach one very last time, at least until summer comes around again next year. On Saturday, Joni and her friends went to the beach in a car driven by one of her friends; after they parked, they went straight to the ocean and relaxed on the sand. As Joni relaxed, she also began to feel very sad about summer ending while she dreaded, at least for a while, the thought of going back to school.

After a half hour of relaxing on the sand, Joni got up and went for a walk on the beach, but suddenly, she bumped her toe on something that looked like glass. Joni took a closer look to try and find out what it was; she dug the sand up a bit, and then Joni learned that it was glass! But what kind of glass was it? A bottle? Jewelry? Or something else? Joni invited her friends to join her in digging up this treasure of glass from the sand. Right afterward, they finally got out something that was made of glass-an old bottle! Joni took a look at the bottle and found that the glass bottle was filled with glitter! She could not believe it! Just then, one of Joni’s friends told her that if she poured the glitter from the bottle into the ocean while making a wish, then it just might come true! Joni realized that her friend might be right! So with that, Joni took the glass bottle to the edge of the ocean and poured the glitter all out of the bottle and into the ocean; while she was doing this, Joni made this wish: “Oh, I wish that I could at least have something for me to remember this summer by!”

After Joni had poured all that glitter out of the bottle, something strange happened; Joni saw water bubbling out of the ocean! And that was when Joni realized that the glitter that she poured out of the bottle was indeed magic! And so it was that the water of the ocean began to bubble and splash, and suddenly, a mermaid with blonde hair and aqua colored scaled fish tail came out of the ocean! The mermaid smiled at Joni, and then she waved her hand. Instantly, a necklace appeared magically in front of Joni; it was a necklace strung with real pearls and dangled with a real clamshell, with two tiny shells in between. The mermaid then gave the necklace to Joni, and the necklace itself magically placed around Joni's neck, while the mermaid informed her that this necklace would always be a symbol of the great summer that one has, and the hope of more summers to come in the coming years. After informing Joni of this, the mermaid then returned to the ocean; Joni, now knowing that she had the best final beach trip of her life, joined her friends as they packed their things and headed to the car for their trip home. ©2026 Jenn Webster