The Great Novelists

I am a hermit crab, and I carry everything I’ve ever owned everywhere I go. Hidden in my shell are three grains of sand, and I live in the mouth of a lagoon. Some days during the summer, huge, old creatures come and move great mounds of earth around, drawing things out of the sand that I have barely glimpsed. Inspired, I try to dig my claws around the edges of things, but to no avail. The humans leave and my memory of them stays somewhere back in my shell with the three sand grains, tormenting me to keep trying.