My friend T gave me a tiny urchin shell. She pulled it out of her jacket pocket as she said goodbye. Her family has just moved from the countryside to the coast in South Africa. They forage for sea creatures. She told me that you can find squid by looking in the water for the places where the crabs are running. That means there’s a predator nearby — the squid of the crab, the human of the squid.

Three urchin shells hold air plants on the windowsill in the kitchen. Leftover party decorations ordered from Amazon for my brother’s rehearsal dinner. Now a smaller one joins after being combed from a beach near Cape Town.

Who's to say what fits and what doesn’t — or from where the urchins will come?