A Close Shave by Harriet Usborne 3rd place Rotary young writer of the year.

We walked down to the jetty, the sun was blazing on our backs. In one hand I had a large transparent container that could carry about two litres of water, I also had two fishing nets and two crab lines. My sister, Eleanor, was carrying the smelly liver and bacon, we had bought loads of it and it was slowly stinking out the fridge. Today was the day we were going to go crabbing. We had been looking forward to it all day, and here it was, we were going every moment. We started the long trek down the steep hill, that took hours to climb up, and we made sure we had everything, so we didn't have to go back. Money for ice creams check, crab lines check, nets check, bucket check, liver or bacon check, key to get back in check. It seemed that we had everything. We walked past the funny little shop, that was the nearest for miles, we passed the estate agents that only seemed to ever have two properties on for sale at one time, we just loved the little Cornish village we lived in. By now we could see the sea, and the salty smell was getting stronger. It looked beautiful, all of the painted houses across the harbour had the sun on them, all of them gleaming and glistening. Down the little bridge we walked, it rocked this way and that and all the time we had our eyes set on the jetty. We could see other children that had already started crabbing, we looked in all their buckets and we saw some of the biggest crabs ever. Then something caught my eye, a man, not very tall, was at the edge of the jetty fishing. Then his bucket moved, I jumped, shivers were starting to go up my spine, maybe we should have waited for mummy and daddy. He saw me staring, I tried to look away, it was too late. I grabbed Eleanor, and started to walk towards him, as not to be rude, because he did seem to be from the older generation. The bucket moved again. I squeezed Eleanor's hand tighter and together we faced him. I slowly looked down into the bucket, and all I could see were huge worms. I started to bend down and he could see I was interested. The bucket moved, I pulled back instantly and squealed, he laughed. A friendly laugh, and I knew then there was nothing to worry about, his laugh was wheezy, and he had the biggest smile I had ever seen. Go on, look he said, put your hand in, they don't bite. Slowly and cautiously, I edged my hand close to the mouth of the bucket, shaking, I felt the icy water touch the tips of my fingers and then the palm. One of the worms slithered by me and I then realised they weren't worms, but eels, I felt so embarrassed. I signalled to Eleanor it was alright, and she too, put her hand in. They were warm compared to the water and they wriggled about, and I could see they were only babies. I picked one up and gave it to him, he then took the large hook and pierced its small body, as he wound it round again and again. Watch out he said to any passers-by, he started to cast the line into the sea. I watched for a bit and played with the baby eels, it was sad that they did not know what was in store for them. Then suddenly, out of the blue, he said the most unexpected thing, do you want some for your crab lines, I paused and looked at them. How could I? I thought. But then wouldn't it be great to go and say I went crabbing with eels. But then my conscience caught up with me, I just couldn't, no, I replied but I thanked him anyway, and said I had to return to my sister. Eleanor had already started and she had caught three, their was a large fat one, a brown colour and two others, who seemed to be clinging to each other. I couldn't wait to get started, so grabbed some liver and wound it around the hook. It smelt terrible but my excitement took over, who cares. I chucked in the line, unwinding it slowly, as to savour every moment, knowing that I would not be able to do this again until next year. I felt the weight hit the bottom and waited ... and waited ,,, and waited. It seemed forever, I would check the line all the time, wondering whether I would catch anything. We didn't catch anything for a good 20 minutes and I was bored. Then it happened, the best thing that day, I saw the line pull, I pulled at it, it seemed heavier than usual. I started to pull up fast, but then worried the thing on the line might fall off. Slowly I pulled it up, it came into sight, nothing, a bit more. A crab, then another and another. I screamed to Eleanor to get the net, I pulled them out of the water, there were four of them, all clinging onto a tiny bit of liver. She grabbed them off the hook and we slowly picked them up out of the net and placed them into the container, I was so happy. Beginners luck everyone said, but I didn't listen, I had done better than all of them on just one catch. After an hour or so, we could see our mummy walking down the rickety bridge, and she was carrying the dog, Mowgli, who was 17 at the time, so this was very brave of him. He was a sausage dog with small little legs that were shaking at the thought of going on to a jetty, with crabs, lots of people and worst of all, it bobbing up and down like a roller coaster. Mummy put him down and he clung to the floor, never wanting to let go. He would not move, so mummy had to bend down and pick him up, like a baby. Everyone was smiling at this sight and all the little children came away from the precious crabbing lines, to come and stroke the old wreck that was before them. Then mummy came up, daddy and she were going to go for an evening drink at the little pub, this pub was very close by. You went up the rickety bridge and it was on the right. She put him down and tied his lead to the sign that said only limited time mooring. It was close to us so he sat right by us, trying to nibble at the liver and bacon, though we quickly took it out of his reach. He sat down looking even more of a wreck. We showed mummy our catch, she was impressed and would come to pick us up in an hour or two. We were fine with this, it was a warm evening, she had brought down a pint of lemonade for us both from the pub, we had the dog and our precious crabs. In half an hour, we had caught 20 crabs alone, which made a grand total of 57 crabs we think. Everyone was amazed, I think they were jealous, some little people had only caught one crab in a couple of hours. In fact we had caught so many crabs, that the top crabs, were actually starting to climb out of the container. After that we didn't catch anymore, so we decided to put them back. We were sad to see them go, so we wanted them to go in a special way, we wanted people to look and stare at us and we wanted to see how many exactly we had caught, and most importantly show off to others how many we had caught. So we came up with the brilliant plan to let them go on the jetty, it would be a fun way to end the day. We cleared everything up and put them out of charms way. Eleanor and I got hold of a side each and slowly started to tip it over in the middle of the jetty. Then, in a split second they were everywhere, little children running to their mummies. We were counting quickly, losing our place and having to start again. Then at the other end of the jetty, I saw Mowgli, the crabs seemed to be surrounding him, getting closer and closer. I grabbed Eleanor's arm and pointed, we gasped. The crabs were joining ranks, getting pay back for us catching them. We ran to Mowgli, kicking all the crabs off like lunatic, and by this time he was breaking out, jumping up and down like a ballerina, trying to make sure they wouldn't get him. But there just seemed to be so many of them, we were't going to be able to save Mowgli. I called to Eleanor, get the stuff. I would get Mowgli, I ran, as fast as I could, they were getting closer, their pincers moving very fast, looking like one of those electric razor, with the blades spinning in all directions. I whisked him up, then I had the problem of getting back without crushing the crabs, I kicked them off, some landing in people's expensive boats and others dive bombing into the sea. We ran to the bridge, earlier we were scared of it falling down, but now it seemed to us like a fortress, no way could the crabs follow us here. We laughed at them, then one brave crab came to the foot of the bridge. We screamed and ran up the bridge to the safety of the harbour. By now we had caused so much attention, we slowly walked into the little pub with our heads held high. We found mummy and daddy and told them. A huge smile burst across their faces, and then we realized how funny it must have looked. After that, I was more weary of crabbing and would always search the jetty for crabs, to see if any were lurking there, trying to get us.