Article January 1, 2003 Issue

The geoduck hole

By Jacqueline Ferguson,—USA

The summer that Jimmy was five, he went to a day camp. It was on Puget Sound, on the northwestern coast of the United States. Jimmy loved going to the beach every day. He and the other kids would search for shells, play games, and splash around in the shallow water.

One day Jimmy went out to the beach with his friends and one of the teachers. The tide had gone a long, long way out, leaving wonderful damp sand to walk on. There were tiny crabs scooting everywhere, pretty shells, and pieces of driftwood. Each was shaped differently from the others. Because the tide was so low, clam hunters had been out very early that morning, hoping to catch some of the big clams, called “geoducks” (pronounced like “gooeyducks”). In order to catch a geoduck, several people dig a large hole, three to four feet across and three to four feet deep. They have to dig very fast to catch the geoduck because it digs just as fast, deeper into the hole. Usually, they fill the hole back up with sand when they are finished. But on this day, they forgot one of the holes.

The tide began to return slowly, covering the sand with a light ripple of water. Jimmy was splashing in the shallow water, and stayed far behind the other kids and the teacher. Suddenly he splashed right into the uncovered hole, which was beginning to fill with water. He fell straight down.

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