Night Tide Lullaby

I loosened my yellow ukulele from my back and cradled it flat across my knees. Down in our tiny canal, the pea-pod boat sat sheltered under the dark skate egg purse, perfectly still on its flat pebble dock. Night crept over the dune ridge, cool and quiet. Instead of picking at the strings, I pressed the pad of my claw lightly against the bridge and hummed a long, low tone into the hollow wood. A gentle vibration hummed right through the soundboard into the cool sand, traveling along the grass shoreline to the urchin-spine tower. The clear quartz grain caught a sliver of starlight, twinkling in time with the ocean's muffled breath.