10

I refuse to believe the idea that I just killed a turtle.

I think I did though.

I was mowing the lawn and saw it sitting there, not moving.

I then took a shovel to it and tried to pick it up. Him up. 

His shell was way softer than I thought it would be, like a stack of wet notebook paper on the top of his body.

He started moving and making that God awful sound of nothing more that I can describe as the sound of  small dry things rubbing up against smaller dry things.

His head and neck stretched out so far out, much more than I thought it could. I thought it was very scary how much it emerged. Gross.

Anyways, made the assumption that if I only took it to the wading pool in my backyard, the one the my dog uses, then he would drink water, become saturated, and maybe also eat the tadpoles. 

I scooped him up and the trip across that 50 yards was hell. He squirmed and the noise kept on playing. A few times I felt repulsed by that animal, but finally.

Finally, I let him walk off the shovel into the pool where he started.

At first, I thought he was playing joyfully, "Finally! What a refreshing time! I have been so hot all day today and now I can play! Thank you Matt!"

But then I realized he was what can only be explained in human speak as, "drowning".

Have you ever seen someone's soul 'searching for air'? I have.

Have you ever seen mountains 'breath'? I think I have.

Have you ever seen a turtle 'breath'? Neither have I, until then.

He was 'gasping'. It was really sad. I checked this morning and he's still not away from the place where I took him out of the pool.

I'm naming him Josephine.