Magic Crab

This story happened to me when I was teaching English in a center in a little town, Quang Ngai, Vietnam. This is a story about a magic hermit crab.

Min was a chubby, cute boy with dimpled cheeks and a silent student in my class. He had always refused to take part in different activities at my lessons. He was drawing cars in his notebook instead of learning English. I tried to get him involved in the games but suffered a fiasco. I decided to give him time to adapt to me and his classmates, who made fun of him for his body and his silence.

One day, I had a picnic at the beach with my friends; we had fun and were up late. It was a great evening; the sea was calm, and stars sparkled with joy in our souls. I was fascinated by a really beautiful spectacle that unfolded right before my eyes. A bunch of kids with lanterns in their hands were walking along the sea; they stopped and bent down and got something from the sand. They were very noisy, laughed, and screamed.

- What are they doing? - I asked my friends, who had been living in Vietnam much longer than me.

-They're hunting hermit crabs. They keep them as pets.

I saw a very familiar figure who reminded me of a bear cub with his clumsiness; he was waddling behind everyone with a big lantern. Suddenly, he stopped and looked at his feet and bent down and caught something with a swift motion and put it into the plastic jar.

- Hi, Min! Did you get your crab? —I asked friendly.

- Hello, teacher, - he said and ran away.

Next day, at break time, I saw students of my class in the center who were crowded around him and pushed him trying to take away his little green box.

- What is going on here? - I asked strictly.

- Min is a liar! —screamed they.

- You cannot be talking like that!

- But teacher, he is saying that his hermit crab is talking!

- Probably, it is a magic one and can talk? Let me see, please.

I took the crab, which was hiding in his shell, carefully and brought it to my ear and nodded my head.

- Wow, amazing! Crab can speak English, such a rare thing! He says to go to the classroom!

Children got excited and tried to snatch the crab from my hands, begging me to let them talk with the magic crab.

- Behave yourselves! It is Min’s friend. Please keep him safe. – I gave it back to him—ask your friend if he would like to help us with English.

Min nodded in agreement.

Since then, the hermit crab had been a regular guest in our classroom; he helped us with grammar mistakes, was a part of games, and even gave us directions, which the kids and I followed without hesitation. Step by step, Min became an active, funny, and brilliant student.

That’s how our class got a vital spark.

This is a tale of how a little magic can make all the difference.