Turtle Soup

When I was growing up, every summer we would get in our car and we would drive from Southern New Mexico through Colorado or Arizona (depending on the route we would take) and then 16 hours later we would end up at my Aunt's house in Richfield, Utah. These trips were grueling especially since the majority of our day was spent driving through the hot New Mexico desert and often without air conditioning. Most moms try to play games with their kids during trips such as these. There's the license plate game, I spy, write notes to other drivers, etc. However, my mom had us play the turtle game, which there were only two rules to the game:

1. Keep your eyes peeled for any turtles

2. When you see a turtle yell it out as fast as you can.

It seemed like we would always see some desert tortoise walking as slow as he could across the freeway just begging to get run over. My mom couldn't take it. If we saw a turtle we would pull over to the side of the road and go get it. Usually we would let it loose on the other side but occasionally it would join us on the journey. It seemed like we always had a turtle or two hanging out in our backyard. I even very distinctly remember a time I convinced my brother to hold his finger in front of the turtles mouth and see what it would do. Sure enough it bit him and wouldn't let go. I remember him screaming and running around the backyard with a turtle attached to his finger. Ahhh, the good old days. Since that time my parents have opened somewhat of a turtle refuge in their backyard. They even landscaped their backyard around the turtles. Apparently, it's very important that male and female turtles hibernate seperately. For this reason it's very important to distinguish the males from the females, so my parents have a letter/number system they use. The males are given letters, the females have numbers, or vice versa.

In the new backyard they have many rocks to hide under and leafy, camoflauge retreats, they even have a couple of turtle waterparks. They have a few secret passageways and they have free reign of the garden. In short, I'm utterly and completely jealous of the turtles. I want to hate them and sabotage them somehow and let them know that my parents still love me more than they love them. The problem: how can you hate this!