Sara

A Strange Day In July

It was mid-July when it happened and nothing has been the same. My family and I live on a farm in Ohio. There’s me, my older brother John, my mom, and my dad. Something that you need to know is that John was a bully at school. He always was so mean to the other kids. I think he was so mean because my dad’s job made us move a lot and he doesn’t like to move (he doesn’t make friends that easily). But my dad quit his job and now we have settled down on a farm. I remember one time John took a kids lunch money just because the kid bumped into him. Me on the other hand, I’m kind of shy. I don’t have that many friends but I do have one good friend, her name is Jessica and we do everything together. Right now I’m 10 and John is 14 but at the time it happened I was 7 and John was 11.

It was a very sunny Sunday, and on Sundays we go to Church.
“Get up Rachel! Get up John! We are going to be late for Church,” my dad yelled.
“Ok, I’m coming,” I yelled back. I raced down the stairs as fast as I could in my Sunday dress and drank some orange juice while we waited for John. After a couple of minutes John came limping down the stairs.
“I think I twisted my ankle,” John said.
“Oh stop it John, you have to go to church today because you missed it last Sunday,” my mom replied.
“Ok fine,” he said.

After church it was so hot we were sweating so hard. I wanted to go do something or go somewhere but my mom wouldn’t let me go anywhere by myself, so John had to come with me. I asked him but he said no. So then I told my mom and she made him come with me. Two miles down the road was a big pond and I wanted to go there. So we walked to Jessica’s house to see if she wanted to come with us but she couldn’t come. She told me that she had to help her mom with some housework. So John and I walked to the pond. When we got there it was still steaming hot. I sat down in a patch of grass while John picked up three stones. He threw the first one in. Plop, plop, plop, it skipped across the water. Then the second stone, splash. Next he threw the third stone. He threw with all of his might and it went plop, plop and then fell into the water, but then suddenly it came skipping back. I quickly got up and my eyes opened really wide. I said, “ What was that?”
“ I don’t know,” he replied. I started walking down to the edge of the pond. When I got there John threw another stone in and it happened again, it came skipping back. We both stared at the water for a couple minutes but nothing happened. “ This is stupid,” John said, “ Why are we sitting here, lets go.”
“ No,” I yelled, “ I want to stay and wait to see what was in the water
“ Ok fine,” John said. After a little while, we sat down on the grass and were still staring at the water. I was wondering what threw the stone back to us. It started getting late so we decided to head home. Then, all of the sudden we heard a noise in the water we turn around and we saw a big huge turtle sitting in the water. After we saw the turtle, John turned to me and he looked angry. He said, “ We spent our whole day sitting at the pond just for some stupid turtle?”
“ I’m sorry John, “ I said, “I didn’t know it would be a turtle in the water.” Just then John picked up a stone and threw it at the turtle. The turtle looked at us and he looked very sad.
“ Well that’s just great, and now we don’t have any time to do anything else because it’s getting dark and we have to go home,” he said.
“ I’m sorry,” I said again. So then we headed home.   

The next morning we went out to look for different kinds of bugs. Suddenly heard something rustling in the bushes. We went over to where we heard the sound and peered in the bushes. “ It’s the turtle,” I yelled out.
“ Oh great,” John said, “ The turtle followed us home.” We both tried to ignore the turtle. Then I went inside to help my mom with the laundry.

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“ She’s a piece of work isn’t she,” I said, and I got no reply from the turtle. I thought why was I talking to a turtle, it wont talk back to me. “ She doesn’t know that she is a pain, but nobody wants to tell her,” I said
“ I don’t think she’s a pain.” I looked up very scared.
“ Who said that?” I asked.
“ I did, Look down here.” I looked around and all that I saw was a turtle. I thought no it couldn’t be the turtle. It’s impossible for a turtle to talk. “ No its not.” I heard the voice again. It sounded like an old man with a rough and scruffy voice. I looked at the turtle and this is what it said, “ I’ve been watching you guys and you and your sister seem nice.” I was amazed, how could a turtle talk I thought? “ Its easy,” the turtle said.
“ What would you know,” I said and I threw a big stone at the turtle.
“ Why are you doing this John?” the turtle asked.
 “ I don’t know. I just hate my life. I have no friends and I hated when we kept on moving.”
“ Have you ever tried making friends?”
“ No,” I said
“ So why don’t you try.”
“ Why, there is no use, nobody will become my friend.”
“ How do you know, you might be surprised John.”
“ Ok, I guess I’ll try. Thank you turtle, you have given me a whole new meaning of life.,”
“ Your welcome John and remember to try not to care about what other people think about you,” the turtle replied, and I went inside to go to sleep.

The next day my mom told me that I had to walk Rachel to Jessica’s house, and I saw the turtle follow us. After I dropped her off I walked down to the pond again. The turtle said to me, “ I have to go now.”
“ Ok,” I said, “ Thanks for all of the help that you gave me.”
“ Your welcome, now I have to go help other people who throw rocks into the pond because they are frustrated,” The turtle replied. Then the turtle turned its head and walked back into the water. On the way to the water I could hear the turtle whisper, “ Be nice, be kind, be thoughtful, and remember everything I told you.” Then I whisped to myself, “ I will remember you forever.”