when a turtle becomes a son.

normal day.
i walk in the house and much to my surprise, i see a package on the counter from a certain someone! i totally did not expect it, and was so happy. it was about an 8 inch by 8 inch box. sent straight from the ghettos of Louisiana. so i quickly open the package, maybe toss it around a bit trying to find the top and struggling with the tape. i see something covered in towels and am immediately weary. chase has a sick sense of humor and has been known to send me such things as, his companions entire ripped off toe nail, a real alligators head, etc...
so i felt through the towels and could feel a hard shell and knew it was a turtle. i assumed it was dead and when i thought about what it'd be, i wanted to barf. i cant even imagine what a turtle shell with no turtle in it would look like, and i really don't want to.
i looked through the rest of the box, found a cute beanie, some beads sent from New Orleans (missionaries love Mardi gras), a tape, a few pictures and a note.
something along the lines of "hey... i hope he isn't dead. if you don't want him, you can give him to my sister... :S" anyone who knows chase knows that he didn't really say it that clearly, but that's what he meant.
i, obviously, was turned off and just stared at the bundle of towels sitting on the counter. i slowly started to unfold the towels. finally i was on the last towel and hurried and pulled it away. i sat there face to face with the most worried looking turtle ever. and we stared at each other for probably five minutes.

i grabbed my phone and sent out a mass text telling my family that chase had sent me a live turtle in the mail. i looked on the box and it said 8-3-08. today's date was 8-5-08, so he'd been without water for at least two days.

when we were on good terms.

my dad told me there was a fish tank down stairs so i fetched it and brought it upstairs. of course i wasn't going to touch the turtle, so i got a paper towel and started to reach for it. he tried to run but couldn't get a grip on our slippery counter, but it still scared me and i jumped back. i tried talking to him and telling him it was okay, i was just going to pick him up, and reached for him again. a mix of being tossed around in a tiny box for two days, hurt ears from the airplane, and fear of a large white object coming towards him made him contemplate life and he started running so fast that he got a grip of the counter and leapt from my grasp and the counter and landed with a thud on the hard wood floor on his shell. all of this happening to the soundtrack of my screams. i sat there screaming for probably ten seconds as he laid there quiet, not moving. my heart was pounding so fast and i was at such confusion and regret that i grabbed my phone and immediately called my grandma. i said "gran. chase sent me a turtle in the mail, and it just leapt from the counter and isn't moving. will you please come pick it up? i can't touch it." and she said "yes, bye" and was there in no longer then five minutes.

when she walked in, i was standing there staring at my lifeless, unmoving turtle. she walked towards him and flipped him off of his back with her foot and he stuck his legs out. he lives!!! and she hurried and grabbed him with the paper towel and dropped him (yes, dropped him) into the fish tank that was currently empty. he ran around and kept bumping into all the see through walls, bless his heart. so i text chacha and asked him what turtles eat, they responded "greens. fruits and vegetables, but you should probably get him real turtle food." i searched all over the house and only found parsley, and hot peppers....so i gave him some parsley and a bowl of water. right when i put the bowl of water in, he submerged himself in it, which i thought was odd.
i let him hang out in his cage until my dad got home and said i needed to put leaves and grass in there for him and needed to go talk to petsmart about how to care for him. i was leaving for the night, so i just hurried and got some grass and a few leaves to put in there, then i went out. i came home around 1 and checked on "Oscar". my dad had gotten WAY more leaves and grass than i had, and Oscar the turtle had burrowed into them so that i couldn't see him. I'd find out why, later.
the next day i had work until 2, then i went straight to petsmart. i told them i received a foreigner in the mail and had no idea what to do. they asked if i had a picture of him, and of course i did.
250 dollars later, and with new knowledge that Oscar was a water turtle, i sped home hoping that i wouldn't have to uncover his corpse. much to my surprise, he was still hanging onto life. i hurried and put my new tank together and my dad helped me fill it with water. he pulled Oscar from his tiny waterless fish tank and dropped him into a huge tank filled with luscious water and Oscar just sat there soaking it all up, so pleased.
a few days later, after Oscar and i became acquainted and got on good terms, i sent his father a tape. told him he owed me child support, but that our baby was happy. i even saw him eating yesterday for the first time. i don't know what I'd do if i would have lost him when he was at his lowest point in life. literally and figuratively.

in honor of. :)