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| The Turtle in the Garage |
One evening after dinner our family decided to take advantage of a cool(er) summer night. As I walked outside my neighbor came over to tell me that she had seen a large turtle heading for our garage. She had chased it away and it was now residing under our holly bushes. She warned me to be careful just in case we had a snapping turtle on our hands, though her best guess was that it was a box turtle. I brought the rest of my family outside to enjoy this sight of nature so rarely seen in suburbia. Our neighbor's two boys also came over to visit the turtle.
After some time the novelty of the "giant" turtle wore off. This turtle gets bigger every time I tell the tale, but in my opinion it was monstrous. The various children dispersed and then we all heard the sounds of an ice cream truck. I don't know who shouted louder. Edmund and I were both screaming for Steven to get us some money for some ice cream. As a parent I now get the creepiness of the ice cream truck, but I suppressed that momentarily as fond memories of Ninja Turtle ice cream pops with bubble gum noses flooded back to me. And can you believe they still sell them? Of course that's what I got. Is it sad I can't remember what my child chose as his first ice cream truck treat? .
We stood in front of our neighbor's house eating the Popsicle with her children who had also been lured by the sound of the ice cream truck music. While the children dripped sticky Popsicle juice all over themselves, I lamented the fact that I had ruined my amazing memories by partaking in the ice cream pop. It probably still tasted the same, but was not what I remembered. After we cleaned the kids' sticky hands we all dispersed and went our separate ways.
Our family decided to take a quick walk around the culdesac before calling it a night. I asked Steven if we should shut the garage as we had been warned that the turtle was hightailing it for our garage earlier. His response, "It's a turtle (read slow), and we'll only be gone a few minutes." After our very short back we returned home and the turtle was nowhere to be found. I asked Edmund, who is lower to the ground than I, if he saw it anywhere. He pointed under the car and said, "it's there!" It took Steven and I awhile to see it, but eventually we did and now had to determine how to remove it from the garage.
I took the kids inside and Steven moved the car. The turtle was in its shell and Steven was able to back up without disturbing it. Eventually, after some careful work with a snow shovel, Steven was able to remove the "gimongous" turtle from the garage and steer it back towards its peaceful home at the pond. When I came downstairs to make sure all was well I spotted liquid of some sort in the garage. I was informed that as man and beast cowered in fear of each other, the beast lost control of its bladder. The next day our 5 year old boy could not contain his laughter as he heard there was turtle pee in the garage. And thus concludes this telling of The Turtle and the Ice Cream Truck.
