Todd the Turtle

Todd was a kind, loyal turtle, but above all he was a lonely turtle. This was because he was missing a fin, which was a result of an encounter with humanity. The ocean animals lived in the ocean, and the humans lived on land. Long ago a deal was made between the ocean animals and mankind that clearly stated that they would never cross on to each other’s territory. The humans were slowly starting to disobey this law.

One day Todd stumbled upon a Jellyfish. Todd has found himself a kind, loyal friend. Tod decided to name him Joey, Joey the Jelly. Joey was unable to speak, making him a great listener, but most of all someone that could not judge Todd. Joey was always leading the way, and Todd always followed. Joey was a large white jellyfish. He was not poisonous, yet everyone swam away from him. Todd related to being the odd one out, and always being excluded.  But Todd and Joey had to be very careful. They were both slow animals, therefore they were the perfect target for predators, and bullies.

Everyone made fun of Todd. He was the disabled turtle that was friends with a jellyfish that was unable to talk, but Todd did not care. Joey could not be more perfect for Todd. Todd would tell Joey all his problems, and no matter what he could not be judged. Todd talked and talked and talked to the point where Joey probably wanted to be eaten by a shark, but Joey always listened. Joey never made a peep.

Todd was an adventurous turtle, and Joey seemed pretty adventures from what he could observe. So, after Todd got so fed up with the constant discrimination, he decided him, and Joey would take a cross ocean adventure. On this adventure they would explore the depths of the deep blue oceans.

They began on their adventure first thing the next morning, as always Joey led the way. They moved with the currents of the ocean, bobbing up and down with every new wave that passed way above their heads. The water got cold then warm than cold again. After a couple hours they found a bed of rocks and decided to take a nap.

They were suddenly awoken by a group of lionfish slowly creeping out of the rocks. They swam as fast as they could (which was not very fast). Todd had to carry Joey because he was unable to swim, and just simply swayed with the waves. After Todd almost fainted, he looked back and saw nothing but vast blueness, they had gotten away. From now on Todd decided to always check his surroundings.

They continued their journey. They had arrived in very deep waters. There was not a soul to be seen, Todd was scared, yet oddly relaxed. For all Joey knew he was still back where they had started. This was how Todd liked it, no body to laugh at him just him and his best friend. As they swam, they noticed a giant dark figure getting bigger and bigger as they got closer and closer. Then once they were about 100 feet away, they saw a big stick like object coming from its back.

Todd swam up to it and saw that it was at least 70 feet long. He did not move a muscle; he was sure not to breath. He did not know if this giant was dead or alive, but what he did know was he did not want to mess with it. Suddenly Joey started drifting toward it. Todd panicked, but could not let Joey get hurt, so he followed him. As he came up on top of the giant, he realized it was a whale. The whale sat there lifeless, with a spear cleanly piercing its back. Todd was devastated; how could someone do this to such a beautiful creature he thought. But this did not stop Todd, he kept swimming.

As they exited, the exited the deep waters and could start to see the bottom once again, they were relieved. But this calmness did not last long, they realized that they had come upon a herd of sharks, teeth the size of surfboards. Todd grabbed Joey and darted away from them. The other sharks figured it was not worth the energy to chase them, except for one. Todd checked behind him to see if they were safe and saw that they were not, he was tired but kept going. The shark chasing them was slow yet determined.

The shark called after the pair of friends “Wait up, I don’t want to hurt you.”

Todd was hesitant but came to a stop. As the shark got closer and closer Todd began to see she was missing a fin as well.

She explained to them, “I was going about my normal boring life when I saw you guys, I noticed that you don’t have a fin.”

Todd nodded his head, “I am missing a fin just like you” the shark explained.

“How did you lose yours?” Todd asked. “Humans tried to catch me in a net, and I got stuck” Todd explained.

“Ouch!” the shark yelled. “My fin was used for shark fin soup.”

Todd felt sorry for the shark.

“Let me introduce myself” the shark proclaimed, “I’m Sally, how about you two?”

Todd went on to introduce themselves. Todd and Sally both discussed the troubles of missing a fin and turns out they both face all the same struggles.

“Let me show you around” Sally said excitedly.

Sally decided to take them to her favorite play spot. As Todd and Joey approached it, they saw a field of coral, not any coral brown dead coral.

“When I was a kid this coral had the most vibrant colors” sally went on to explain. “But as time went on its all died, I go here to relax and think about my childhood when things get rough” she explained.

“It seems like fun” Todd said, “Let us play!”

For hours on hours they raced each other through coral. As the water became dark, Todd invited sally to come along on their trip. Sally explained how much she wishes she could, but she has kids to tend to.

They were sad yet happy they made a friend. But even though this was the best part of the trip, they had to keep going. A strong current came in and they just decided to move with it. The waves got bigger the water got colder. As the current took them, they swayed up and down as if they were being rocked to sleep. Slowly they drifted off into a deep sleep. Several hours later they woke up half frozen.

“Where are we” Todd yelled out.

It did not take them long to figure this out. As Todd looked up, he saw a mountain of ice above him. They knew they had arrived in the Artic. Todd the Turtle was not meant to inhabit cold waters, so he knew he could not stay for long. Soon they realized that they faced a problem, a giant cold problem, that got worse and worse. As they looked up, they saw the mountain of ice shifting more and more on an angle, until the point where it laid over them like a bridge. They tried to swim away but there was no time left. The mountain came crashing down as if it was a skyscraper. The splash was so powerful it shot them both miles into the ocean.

They both landed hard on the surface of the ocean. After Todd made sure he was ok, he called out for Joey.

“JOEY! JOEY” he screamed, no response. He searched and searched and finally found Joey.

“You scared the heck out of me” he said in an angry tone. But he was so incredibly relieved that he had found him.

The water they were currently floating in was still freezing, but not nearly as bad as the Arctic. Todd began to slow down, and he knew he had to get to warmer water fast. They both went south to try and get towards the Caribbean. After about an hour, Todd started to return to normal. This was due to the increasing water temperature. As they swam, they noticed the waves above them where getting big, and a strange whistling sound was coming from above.

They decided to check their location, and what was going on. As they reached the surface, they noticed grey skies, monstrous winds, and giant waves. Todd had learned about this in school, they were in the middle of a great hurricane.

“We are in a hurricane! We need to swim as deep as we can, so we don’t get hurt!” Todd shouted to Joey.

Todd raced to grab Joey, but it was too late, a 40-foot wave had just crashed. Todd was swirling around in the ocean; the winds were sweeping him left and right. As the wave went away, Joey was no where to be found. Todd checked the surface to see if maybe Joey was filled with air, so he would be floating. But as he came up, he saw how powerful the winds where.

Joey was still nowhere to be found. Not for long though. Todd investigated the distance and what he saw made his heart stop. Swirling around there was a white plastic bag that had been  taken by the wind. Todd knew what this meant.

“How could I be so stupid” he thought to himself.

Todd’s teacher had done a whole lesson on how to tell the difference between a jellyfish and a plastic bag. Todd had completely been overwhelmed by happiness about his new friend that he totally forgot to check if his friend was a real friend, or a real threat.

Todd was lonely, and he is still lonely. Todd never had a friend and he most likely never will. He knew what he had to do. He had to go back to his life. He started his journey home. Not a soul in sight. Everything seemed dark and sad. He could not tell what was real anymore. He thought about how many things where wrong with the ocean. As he swam, he realized most of the fish he saw on his trip were fake. They were attached to a line with a human on the other end, rooting for him to die. They hoped he would make a mistake and think that the fish was a real living thing, just like he had done with Joey.