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prose by V Owen
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The Boy Who Became A Tortoise
The old tortoise had a constant follower. The young boy padded after her at her own slow pace, through the conservatory, around the small garden which was suffering under the approach of winter. But the boy and the tortoise shuffled around it anyway, occasionally stopping for no particular reason.
The tortoise was very old. She could remember bright green days and cool green nights of her youth. Here everything was dull. If tortoises were given to introspection she might have considered that it was age dulling her senses. Since tortoises are not, she simply pulled her head into her shell and remembered.
The boy was very young. To him the world was dull too, but the tortoise was fascinating. He wondered what it was like to be able to pull your head inside your own safe shell. He wished he could follow her there too.
One day, as very old tortoises are disposed to do, the tortoise died. She died lost in her green memories. She lay in her box of hay and newspapers undiscovered in the garden shed.
The boy waited for her for two days, then decided that if she wouldn’t come out he would have to patrol their territory himself. Very slowly he traced the route the tortoise had taken. He stopped occasionally.
His parents didn’t notice anything had changed.
The boy pulled his jumper up over his head. It was comfortably dark. He felt his own warm breath on his face. Maybe this was what the tortoise felt. He was happy.
As time passed and the old tortoise decayed, the boy found more happiness in being a tortoise. His movements slowed, his gaze became ponderous, and there was little that interested him outside of his own world. People even began to treat him like they might treat a tortoise. They poked him to make him move faster. They pushed him over to watch him struggle back up. And eventually they got bored of him and left him alone.
The boy pulled his head into his shell and remembered the old tortoise that had been here before him. He endured, because that is what tortoises do.
Eventually his parents discovered the old dead tortoise. They were surprised. They would have sworn they saw a tortoise just yesterday.
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Notes:
A very short, slightly sad story, with an ending which needs you to decide your own interpretation.
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Posted: 11th May 2008
Words: 392
Viewed: 666 times
Comments: 1
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