Ronnie and the
Tortoise
by Bill Tope
After Ronnie Tubs
took and wacked the old
Tortoise on the back with a baseball bat,
a
Thunderous Crack! could be heard across
The playground. Ronnie, a bully and
a bit
Of a sadist, had been trying to impress
the
Fair-haired girls of the third grade,
prompting
Him to take up his cudgel and swing away.
Now the tortoise lay with a broken shell,
dying
In the sun. But leaving the girls
unimpressed
With his feat, Ronnie grew enraged at the
lack
Of respect being shown him.
Kneeling before the reptile, Ronnie
extended
His thick fist toward the fractured
carapace,
Thinking to drag the hapless creature
from its
Shell, whereupon he would happily wring
its
Neck.
Grasping for the helpless tortoise,
Ronnie
Suddenly recoiled as if shot, as a loud
snapping
Sound echoed off the trees. He fell
back upon
His prominent posterior. Bewildered,
he held up
His hand, to show where his forefinger
used to be.
Unbeknownst to Ronnie and the other
children,
The nondescript, tired old tortoise was
in fact a
Fearsome Alligator Snapping Turtle and
had
Severed Ronnie's finger with almost
surgical
Finesse. The bully let out a
bloodcurdling wail,
While the turtle, chewing the remnants of
the
Finger, was said by some of the children
present
In the playground that day, to be almost
grinning.
First
published in the magazine,
Children, Churches,
and Daddies |
|
