Editor’s note: For nearly 30 years, Publisher John Derby, wrote one children’s story a year at Christmas time, and his late wife Kathy compiled them into a book. It has been over a decade since he wrote his last story; however, he had one story of Cracky the Crab which was partly written and never completed. Recently, Derby decided it was a good time to complete the story for publication in December of 2022.
Now you might not believe creatures of the sea like Cracky the Crab would have problems with their sight, but they do. Cracky could see only things which were very, very near, but if they were distant, he could not see them at all, or they were just a blur.
Little by little he was running out of food. All the things like worms and little fish were hard to catch, and now he had to depend on what other fish caught and would leave behind on the bottom of the ocean.
One day he was out looking for food when something happened that would change his life.
It was clear day in Conception Bay, Baja Mexico. A man was fishing, and he leaned over the side of the boat to check his lure, when a wave hit the boat. Overboard went his glasses.
The man felt sure, if he marked the place, he could come back and dive to find the glasses.
That would have been possible had it not been for Cracky the Crab. Just by chance, Cracky saw the eye glasses as they floated to the bottom of the bay. He had no idea what they were, and could not even see them clearly because of his blurred vision.
Cracky went to the spot where the glasses settled on the bottom and picked them up. He had never seen anything like this on the bottom before. He turned them around and upside down. On closer examination Cracky thought they might be some kind of a fishing lure.
Then, out of the blue, he put them over his eyes, and low and behold, he could see clearly. He could not believe his eyes and took the glasses off and things were blurry again, but when he put the glasses back on, he could see clearly for several yards.
There was all kinds of food around, and he was so hungry, he had a feast right on the spot.
Cracky then went to all his friends in Conception Bay and told them about his amazing find.
Everyone was so happy for him. They decided to have a party.
Meanwhile, the fisherman had gone home and decided to put on his diving gear and go back for his glasses the next day. Which he did.
However, when he got to the exact same spot, the glasses were no where to be found. He searched the whole area and there were no glasses.
Then he turned around, and saw what looked like a crab, but the crab had glasses on its head. They looked like his glasses, and he tried to catch the crab, but Cracky was too fast dodging from on clump of seaweed to the next.
That night all the creatures of the sea joined together and had a big party with Cracky wearing his new glasses as the guest of honor.
After that Cracky never went hungry again, and his only wish was that he had enough glasses to pass around to the other near-sighted crabs of the sea.