Cathy, a school teacher, had been introducing her ten-year-old daughter Marian, to sea shells. They were visiting her parents, whose house was near a beach. Marian picked up just about any shell she could find as they walked on the sand. The sea occasionally reached their feet. "You need to distinguish between the good shells, and the mere shells," she said to the lively kid. "Like this one, these are nautilus shells for jewellery, good for jewellery."

Cathy picked up a shell. It was still alive. The nautilus shell, she knew, was a carnivore. It eats small crabs. "Mommy it's like a spiral," Marian said. Cathy nodded, and wondered about the recipe for cooking nautilus shells. This was her home country, and here, it was eaten. The shells, she mused, she could take home and show her daughter how
they could be made into jewellery.

"How do you make them into jewellery?" Marian asked. "The simplest way would be to attach them to a string, to make one nautilus shell into a pendant, or a bracelet." The kid smiled at the possibility. It's beautiful, isn't it? Cathy asked no one in particular, but heard her daughter said yes. Her husband had given her a nautilus inspired pair of earrings for their second anniversary; one shaped like a nautilus shell, but really involved no shell at all. Now, she was holding the real live thing, and wondered if she could find smaller ones to make into earrings.

As if reading her mother's mind, Marian started returning the shells she picked up on the beach and started hunting for nautilus shells. Mother and daughter smiled the same smile and started looking for more of the spiralled shell they just found.