The sound of the crashing waves grew louder as the tide rolled in. But even over their roar, I could hear and feel the beat of my pulse thundering in my ears as I stared at the bones. What the hell had happened?

Determined to find out, I sprinted across the sand, drawing closer to the strange piles of bones.

But seeing them closer up didn’t answer any of my questions. If anything, it just produced more.

Because it wasn’t piles of dead sea creatures. That sometimes happened—an algae bloom would suck the oxygen from the water and cause fish to die en masse. Scores of dead fish would wash up on shore. That was always disturbing to see, but that wasn’t what this was.

This was just the bones. Clean bones, bleached white. They even looked smooth, as though they’d been tumbling around in the ocean for a while before landing on shore, the sand polishing them almost shiny.

But…how? That was the question that kept running through my mind. What was I looking at? How could this have happened? What was the explanation?

It just didn’t make any sense. What could have happened that all these skeletons would have ended up here?

One or two dead creatures—sure. That happened. It was the ocean, after all. There was a life cycle within it that I could only guess at. But that wasn’t what I was looking at. What could have caused this volume of animals to die?

I walked slowly closer, winding through the sand as I peered at the strange piles. With a start, I realized I could identify some of the skeletons, though there were bones missing. I clocked fish, gulls, seals—a lot of seals—and even some skeletons that I was sure were dolphins.

But the strangest moment of all made me stop in my tracks. A whale skull sat on the sand, facing me, as though it was staring right at me. It took me a moment to get over my astonishment, but when I looked past the skull, I could see the wide, rounded bones of the mammal’s ribs. I couldn’t tell just from looking at the skull what kind of whale it was, but the arcing, imposing ribs stood as tall as me.

Pulling out my phone for a second time, I started snapping pictures. But this time, I sent them to my parents.

Then I called my mom.
She answered on the second ring. “Camilla? Where are you? Why are you calling?” she asked, sounding sleepy.

“Mom!” I said, not even bothering to hide the anxiety in my voice.

She heard it. “Camilla? Honey? Are you okay? Where are you?”

“Mom, I’m at High Head. But there’s something weird happening here.”

“What’s going on?” my mom asked, sounding suddenly more alert.

“There are bones. Animal bones. Fish bones. Mom—there are whale bones.”

She sighed, sounding relieved. “Camilla, is that why you called? Honey, it’s a beach, there are bound to be bones.” She yawned. “Especially when there’s been a period of low tides—”

“No, Mom, you don’t understand. There are thousands of them. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen.”

She didn’t answer for a moment. “Are you sure?”

“I’m sure,” I said, and something in my voice must have convinced her.

“I’m getting your father up. You stay there, we’ll be down there as soon as we can. If there are people around, don’t let anyone take anything, okay?”

“What? Why would anyone take anything?” I asked, baffled. “Who would want a seal bone as a souvenir?”

“You’d be surprised,” she said ruefully. “Whatever it is that you’re seeing, it’s very…unusual. I want to make sure we get an undisturbed look at what it really is.”

“Okay, I’ll make sure. See you soon,” I said. I ended the call and looked around again, taking in the piles of bones stretching down the beach. I had walked into the midst of them, so I was basically surrounded by bleached animal bones. It was creepy, and I felt a chill shiver down my spine.

I wasn’t sure what else to do, so I shot the photo I’d taken over to Jonah, who must not have fallen back asleep, because he responded immediately.

WTF is that??? That is not the bone I foresaw in my morning.

I smiled at his joke, but I was feeling nervous, and my stomach was twisting anxiously. The bones were freaking me out, but it was more than that.

I checked the time.

It was early, but I was still worried. If my parents didn’t get over to the beach soon, it was going to throw off my whole morning, which would throw my whole day out of whack.

Of all the days to be late to school, this one wasn’t it—I absolutely needed to get there early.