Turtle Tom

Turtle Tom

My name is Tom T. Terdle. Pretty dumb, huh?

I don't have a middle name, only the initial.It has something to do with my grandfather and his father's father.And, my first name is Tom - not Thomas, just Tom.It lends itself to all kinds of things, all of which are pretty mean.

People, all kinds of people, call me all sorts of things.I haven't had one teacher who hasn't laughed after calling my name on the first day of school.

It usually goes like this: "Robert Miller?" "Here!"

"Becky-Sue Porter?" "Here." "Tom T. Terdle?" "Here."

"Does the 'T' stand for 'The,' as in Tom The Turtle'? Heh, heh, heh!" Groan.

I've heard that every year and sometimes twice.That's because my dad has to move around with his job, and one year I went to three different schools.I'm in the fourth grade, and already I've gone to six grade schools.Every time we move, I have to get ready for the stupid names and a fight or two.

This time my dad was transferred to Port Aransas, Texas.We had been living in Utah, and at first I thought it would be really cool to live on the ocean.Port Aransas is on Padre Island, which is on the Gulf of Mexico.It wasn't what I expected. Because the water is protected, the waves are pretty small, and the water is warm.The land is warmer than the water, and when we first got here it was hot. I mean really hot!

If that wasn't bad enough, Texas schools start in the middle of August, so I didn't get much of a vacation.I didn't meet any of the other kids in my class until school had started.By now it was too late to meet anyone. I would probably get into another fight.

I don't like to fight, but some of the things other kids say are pretty nasty.One thing leads to another, and usually I hit somebody.Then, I end up in the principal's office with my mom having to drive over to the school.

All of which is the reason I ended up alone on the beach on a weekday.I got kicked out of school for three days for fighting.Still had to do my homework, but I couldn't go to school, which was just fine with me.Don't get me wrong, I like school - I just don't like the other kids always teasing me.If there's any salvation in what happened yesterday, it's that the principal kicked out the other four kids, too.He said I was provoked. That still didn't help me much at home.

In the first day, I got all my homework done for the entire three days.So I was allowed to go down to the beach and look for stuff along the shore.

What I found is the last thing I wanted to find - turtles.

Actually, what I found first was eggs - lots of eggs buried under the sand.I thought it was a joke. Maybe somebody had buried a bunch of hard-boiled eggs after a beach party.But the eggs were weird. They were soft and kind of leathery.They didn't look like chicken eggs at all.

I kept digging and the deeper I dug, the more eggs I found.

I felt like a dog digging for bones, and minutes later I really felt like a dog.

My digging was interrupted by an angry woman's voice, "What in tarnation are you doing?"

"Huh?" I looked up, sand all over my face and an egg in my hand.Standing behind me, hands on her hips, was an old lady with fluffy white hair.

"You are going to kill every one of those if you don't stop it!" she said. "Kill what?" I asked.

"The turtles," she said, taking the egg out of my hand."Don't you know how to read?" She snapped her thumb at a sign on a weathered post not twenty feet away:"Be Aware! Sea Turtle Nesting Area!Violators will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law!"

I felt bad. I started pushing sand back onto the remaining eggs."No, no, no!" she said, kneeling down beside me."The entire clutch has got to be put back - and gently."

Together we carefully put the eggs back in the hole and began covering them with the warm sand.

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