Shame Memory

The shame memory started for Nick when he and his family went down on the beach at his grandparents lake house in Michigan. They went along the beach, until they were at a part where grass grew in the water and there were tadpoles and frogs swimming around. When they got there, Nick's mind drifted back to when he was seven or eight, he doesn't remember which, and he was trying to catch some of the tadpoles in the water in the same spot he as now. He remembered catching 10 of them, and putting them in a bucket with water, and getting his parents to let him take them home with him as pets. He was extremely happy because he'd never had a pet before, and was very excited.. They got a tank, and filled it with water and some of the grass from the lake, trying to make it as comfortable a home as possible for the tadpoles. Once they got home, however, they didn't have a place to put the tadpoles inside, so they put the tank (with a lid on it, so nothing could enter and eat the tadpoles) outside their back door. In the morning , when Nick went outside to see the tadpoles, he found the tank destroyed, and that a raccoon had eaten all of them. He was devastated because if he had only brought the tank inside, they wouldn't have been eaten by a raccoon.