Can you hear it?

"Do you hear it?", My son asks as he puts a shell up to my ear. 

"Do you hear the water? It's just a shell...".

"Can you hear it?", He asks again as he pushes his face against my face, ear to shell to ear, cheek pressed hard on mine. He gasps, "I can hear it! It's the ocean just in time! ....but it's just a shell."