The High-Tide Café

“One seaweed umbrella, two pebble plates, and a very hungry seal,” Lottie said.

She set her toy seal, Captain Blubber, on a flat piece of driftwood. The wood rested across two sturdy rocks on a safe patch of dry sand above a line of tide pools. Lottie placed the pebble plates beside him and tucked a pretend berry under his flipper.

“Captain Blubber is ready for lunch,” she announced.

Sam, her neighbor, knelt nearby. “Does he want a sandwich?”

“He wants a seaweed sandwich,” said Lottie. “With extra seaweed.”

“Excellent. I was worried he might be picky.”

Lottie made a little umbrella from a long strand of seaweed and held it over the seal. It slid down his nose.

“Too much shade,” Sam said.

“Captain Blubber likes a hat,” Lottie replied, setting the seaweed on his head instead.

A grown-up sat on the path above the beach, where they could see the children. The coast was calm. Below Lottie and Sam, small tide pools lay among the rocks. Tiny ripples moved around their edges, and a little crab tucked itself into a crack.

“Let’s open a picnic café,” Sam said. “I’ll be the waiter.”

“Then I’ll be the chef,” said Lottie. “Captain Blubber will be the customer.”

Sam bowed to the seal. “What would you like, sir?”

The seal said nothing. He was very good at being a customer.

Lottie served him a pebble pie, a shell-shaped cup of pretend tea, and one pretend berry. She gave Sam an empty palmful of sand.

“What’s this?” he asked.

“Crumb cake.”

Sam tasted the air. “Delicious. It tastes like absolutely nothing.”

Lottie giggled. She wanted the picnic to last all afternoon. She arranged the plates again and made a menu with a line in the sand: SEAWEED, PEBBLES, BERRY.

Then she noticed the water below. It was creeping over the low rocks, slowly covering their edges. The tide was coming in. Lottie glanced at the driftwood table, still dry for now, and nudged Captain Blubber closer to the berry.

“Quick,” she whispered. “We have a customer to feed.”

The water slipped around the rocks below the picnic spot. It filled the smallest tide pools until their edges were hard to see. A little wave reached the rock beside Lottie’s driftwood table and curled away again.

Sam pointed. “The sea is visiting our café.”

“Customers usually wait for a table,” Lottie said. “This one is getting very close.”

She moved a pebble plate away from the edge. The table was still on dry sand, but water now surrounded the rocks beneath it. The original picnic spot wasn’t a good place to keep playing.

Lottie looked at Captain Blubber. “We can’t leave you here with the sea coming up to your whiskers.”

Sam held the toy seal upright. “He says he would like a table with fewer splashes.”

Lottie studied the beach. Just a little way up the safe sandy patch lay another piece of driftwood. It was flat and wide, and it rested on dry sand above the tide pools. Seaweed lay beside it, where the tide had left it.

“That can be our new table,” Lottie said. “We won’t move the driftwood or the seaweed. We’ll move our picnic to it.”

She looked once more at the first table. The rising tide could cover low rocky places and the edges of tide pools, and it was already curling around the rocks beneath the wood. Lottie felt a tiny pinch of disappointment. She had liked that spot.

“But the café can move,” Sam said. “A café with legs!”

“Tables don’t have legs,” Lottie said.

“This one does. They’re our legs.” Sam wiggled his knees.

Lottie laughed. Then she gathered the pebble plates and the pretend berry. Sam carried Captain Blubber with both hands, as carefully as if the seal were made of pudding. Together they walked to the higher, dry sand. They left the first driftwood table where it was, and left the seaweed right beside the other flat piece of wood.

Lottie set the plates on the new table. Captain Blubber took his seat.

“Welcome,” she said, standing tall behind the counter. “This is the High-Tide Café!”

Sam leaned over the table. “Do you serve seaweed sandwiches?”

“Only to customers with excellent manners.”

Sam bowed so low his nose nearly touched a pebble. The café was open again.

At the High-Tide Café, the menu grew longer and longer.

Lottie drew a picture of a seaweed sandwich. Sam added a pebble soup, a shell-shaped cup of tea, and a special dish called “surprise.”

“What’s in the surprise?” Lottie asked.

“Nothing,” Sam said. “That’s why it’s a surprise.”

Captain Blubber had a quiet place at the end of the flat driftwood table. Lottie arranged his pebble plate, then placed the pretend berry on it. The seal’s stitched mouth made him look pleased, though he always looked pleased. That was one of his finest skills.

Sam pretended to pour tea from an empty hand. “Careful,” he said. “It’s very hot.”

Lottie pretended to blow on her cup. “Now it’s the perfect temperature for a seal.”

They played café while the tide moved across the lower rocks. Water covered some of the low, rocky places and lapped at the edges of the tide pools. Lottie and Sam stayed on their dry patch of sand, where their new café stood safely above the pools.

A gull called from farther along the shore. Sam looked up.

“Is that another customer?” he asked.

“Maybe,” Lottie said. “But we’re nearly closing.”

The grown-up on the path gave them a friendly wave. It was time to go. Lottie gathered the pebble plates and the little shell cup. Sam picked up Captain Blubber, who had been a very patient customer and had not complained once about the service.

“Did he enjoy his meal?” Sam asked.

“He’s saving room for the last berry.” Lottie placed the pretend berry on the seal’s plate. “There you are, Captain.”

Sam gave the seal a solemn nod. “An excellent choice, sir.”

Lottie looked at the high-tide café one last time. The flat driftwood stayed on the dry sand, and the seaweed rested where the tide had left it. She gave Captain Blubber the final pretend berry, tucked the toy seal safely in her arms, and whispered, “Goodnight, High-Tide Café.”