struggling through the sand

"One morning right after the sun came up, we saw a trail of baby sea turtles struggling through the sand toward the ocean. One had flipped over onto its back, another seemed stuck in a strand of washed-up seaweed. I wanted to help them, to pick them up and put them in the water but my father wouldn’t let me. I said what if they don’t make it? And he said then they don’t make it."  

~~ from "Romans" by Greta Schledorn