Turtle's Tremendous Trip


Written by: Sharon Frey



     One sweltering morning in July, Turtle was pushing through the kelp on his daily swim to his best friend, Starfish's, house.  The water was so warm and kelp was so thick that he had to stop and rest for a few minutes to cool down. 


As Turtle was resting on the seabed, everything suddenly became dark.  It was almost as if someone had turned the lights off in the ocean.  He could no longer see the kelp that surrounded him, nor could he see his friend's house in the distance.  The only light he could see was shining through a sliver at the surface of the water. 




When his curiosity got the best of him, Turtle decided to investigate this unusual turn of events.  He began pushing through the kelp once again, only this time he was pushing vertically through the jungle instead of horizontally.  Suddenly Turtle heard a voice from behind.

"Hey Turtle!  Where are you going?"  It was Starfish, being nosy as usual.

"Don't you see?  It looks like somebody turned the light off!  Look up there, what do you think that is?" Turtle pointed toward the object on the surface. 

"I don't know, but I'm coming with you to check it out!" Starfish cried with excitement. Starfish jumped on Turtle's back and off they went!




When Turtle and Starfish approached the strange object with the sliver of light shining through it, they realized that it was a boat.  When they got a few feet from the boat, they saw about a dozen sets of human eyes looking down at them through the hole in the boat that the light was shining through.

"What do you suppose they are looking at?" asked Starfish?

"Don't you get it?  They are looking at us, Silly!!"

"But, I don't understand.  How are they looking at us through that hole in the bottom of the boat?  Why isn't the boat sinking?" Starfish continued his line of questionning. 



"They MUST be sinking!  We have to help them!" Turtle yelled.  At that, Turtle sprinted towards the boat and up to the hole in the bottom of the boat when...


 

CLUNK!



At the sound of Turtle's head hitting the bottom of the boat, the human's in the boat started pointing and laughing, as did Turtle's loyal friend, Starfish! 

"Ha ha!  That was hilarious!  It is a glass bottom boat!  We should have known!" Starfish explained with pride. 

Rubbing the growing lump on his head, Turtle said, "You're right Starfish, we should have known!  Next time I won't be so naive!"


At that, the mystery was solved, and Turtle and Starfish had had enough investigating for the day.  Starfish jumped on Turtle's back and Turtle swam back down through the abyss of kelp until they disappeared...far away from the curious humans on vacation.