With July 4th just days away I received a call from the restaurant that I had ordered a bushel of crabs from, and they told me that they were sorry but they would not be able to fill my order. They said that the number of crabs that they actually received was much lower then what they had expected.

I thought, well, isn't that just wonderful. Most of my family was coming from Chicago to spend the fourth here in Maryland. I had insisted that they come to enjoy a "real" Fourth of July with Maryland crabs. Why did I have to be so full of myself? I know that they were all looking forward to it; they had been telling me so for weeks.

I figured that I could call around to a couple of restaurants, and somebody would have to be able to fill my order. I think I must have called every restaurant in town who sold crabs, and they were all sold out.

Distressed and defeated I called to break the news to my mom. She seemed disappointed, but assured me that we would all still have a happy Fourth of July. And she was right.

© 2009 Julie Goolsby. Original for CCF. Goolsby grants CCF first electronic rights for one month; CCF may archive the material indefinitely and include it in an eBook anthology.