The Blue Lobster

A one in five million shot. Apparently those are the odds. And I am the one.

The year was 1987 and I was vacationing with my family on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. We have gone to Hilton Head every summer since I was a baby. At this point in time, we were poor folk who used to cram five people into our Pontiac T-1000 hatchback with no air conditioning and make the 18 hour road trip. The only thing we had to look forward to on this ride was South of the Border and the signs leading up to it. Pedro sells fireworks and charges .50 cents to use the bathroom. At least in 1987.

Anyway, I was looking forward to being out of school and frolicking on the beach for two weeks (I was 8, not much else to look forward to) I had no idea that this trip would be so momentous.

On the fateful day, I was cavorting in the waves alone looking longingly at my sisters who were both a good 20 feet out from me. I was way too much of a wuss to venture out into deeper waters on my own and in the grand tradition of older siblings, they were content to not help me, preferring to watch me suffer.

While standing there, I felt a slight pinch on my left Achilles tendon. I looked around my feet to investigate but the incessant surf made it impossible. It didn't seem painful enough to be a jellyfish sting and I hadn't stepped on anything.

I tried shaking my foot to loosen whatever had attached itself. Still, there was pain. My curiosity got the better of me and I headed closer to shore. The pain was increasingly getting worse. Maybe it was a jellyfish sting.

When I finally made it to shore, I looked down at my ankle. At first I was confused. This didn't make sense. What the hell is that? Then panic took over. I started shaking my leg violently. "Get off, get off, get off!"I screamed. Finally, my captor let go and headed back out into the safety of the ocean.

I screamed bloody murder and ran towards my mother as fast as I could. This was the worst day at the beach ever.

At the time, I did not realize the magnitude of my discovery or how it would impact my life. It wasn't until about 3 years ago when I was watching a show on the Discovery Channel that I truly realized what I had witnessed. It was one of those scientific shows about ocean creatures that I pretend to think are dorky but actually find very interesting (I have to admit this now because I no longer have anyone else to blame)

They showed a picture of a blue lobster on the screen. Nonchalantly, I said "Oh, I've seen one of those before." This simple comment prompted my companion to burst into hysterics. "Yeah, right," he replied. "You know the odds of seeing one of those are like one in a million." I had not been aware of that fact and I was not about to correct Mr. Wizard himself. I watched the segment with growing fascination. He was wrong though, the odds were really one in five million.

It was like I had stumbled on some mythical creature for the land of Narnia. The only problem was that no one believed me. I appealed to my family to back my story, but no one had witnessed the incident or remembered my crying (negative side effect of being a crier...people can't remember when you are actually upset) Everyone believed that I had made it up and I had really only seen a blue crab. Then the teasing began...

Three years later, the jokes still going strong. But it doesn't matter to me. I know what I saw. My only wish...if I was only going to get one shot at something with one to five million odds, why couldn't I have won the lotto or something cool like that?