Chapter 17

ESCAPE FROM THE CAKES

I’ve just let Ronan in when Grammy calls from the kitchen, “Delsie, honey bunch! I’ve got some chicken legs that are past due if you want them!”

“Really?! Excellent.”

Ronan looks at me like I’ve lost my mind. “Why the heck would anyone want old chicken?”

I shake my head. “The things you don’t know about living on the Cape.”

“Well, if it involves old chicken legs, I think I can wait.”

“You’ll see,” I say. “You’re going to love it.”

“Oh yeah. Nothing like rotting meat to improve the day.”

• • •

When we arrive at Gray’s Beach, I open my bag and pull out the chicken, some string, and scissors. “Here,” I say, handing him the scissors. “We need long pieces of string.”

He cuts the string, glancing at me. As I tie the string tightly around the chicken leg, Ronan looks over the side of the boardwalk. “So we’re here to catch stuff?”

“Blue crabs.”

“I see one!” he yells as he points. “And another one!” He glances at me, glowing. “They’re everywhere!”

I give him a chicken leg, and I take one. We lower the chicken legs over the side and into the water. Mine lies on the bottom, but Ronan’s is hanging in a deeper spot.

I lean over. “It has to sit on the bottom somewhere so the crabs can get to it.”

He looks over at mine and smiles. The crabs are running from all directions and climbing onto my chicken leg.

“Pull it up!” Ronan says, leaning over the railing.

“Okay. Here’s the thing,” I say. “Once they are eating, you have to pull them up smoothly but really fast before they fall off. Because they do let go. Ready?”

“Yeah.” He steps up another rung on the railing.

Hand over hand, just like pulling in nets on the Reel, I pull up my string. Two feet over the water, a crab lets go. Then another. When the chicken reaches the railing, I have four crabs left. I lift the string over the railing and drop the chicken into the pail. I knock the crabs off with my hand and pull the chicken out for another round.

Bending over, I say, “Wow. One of them is huge. Usually, you can’t catch those. Henry says it’s a Darwin thing. They’re big because they’ve figured out how to survive. Like, if you’re suddenly being lifted into the air, let go.”

Ronan reaches into the pail and pulls out the big one. “We should name him Zeus!”

“You can’t name things we are taking home to eat.”

“Eat? Who wants to eat this? He looks like a mini alien.” The crab pinches his finger.

“Ow!” he yells, dropping the crab on the boardwalk.

“It must have heard you.”

The crab moves sideways, running for the edge, but hits Ronan’s foot. He jumps into the air and falls down flat.