Lonny’s Homecoming
LONNY’S HOMECOMING
by Christine Macielak
CHAPTER ONE
It was early morning when Lonny awoke. The sun was just coming up over the beach on Turtle Island and he could hear the sound of the waves against the rocks and sand, as well as the singing of the birds that lived on the island. The water called to him in the sound of the waves. He felt drawn to it and began to walk from his nest in the tall grass between the big rocks toward the sandy beach. Along the way he met his friends and they all walked together. Like him, his friends were the youngest members of the turtle clan. Just old enough to have their own nest, but not old enough to be like the full grown turtles who were very large and built nests that were big enough for them to live in with their very little turtles. The very little turtles lived in those big nests until they got as old as Lonny and his friends. Then they were taught how to build their own small nest. They often practiced building bigger and bigger nests. Sometimes Lonny practiced by himself, and sometimes he had his friends help him with his work. So far, all of his nests had been washed away by the hard rain that often fell on the island. It was important to build a nest that wouldn’t get washed away by rain, and Lonny was determined to build one someday. For now he was happy with the nest he had and even more happy to swim in the ocean with his friends every morning.
“Last one in is a slowpoke,” Lonny heard one of his friends say, and everyone starting moving as fast as they could. It was part of the daily morning swim, running into the water as fast as you could. No one ever got teased about being slow because everyone was so busy getting to the beach themselves that they didn’t have time to see who the last one in was.
Lonny felt the cool rush of the water all around him as soon as he entered the sea. He loved the water. He felt more at home in the water than he did on the land. On the land he felt heavy and slow. In the water he felt light and free. He could move much faster in the water then he did on the land. He loved to swim fast and twist and turn in the water the way he could not on land. He felt totally comfortable in the water, safe and secure. He never expected that anything bad could ever happen to him in the water. He went that morning for a long swim.
After swimming for about a mile Lonny decided it was time to go back toward Turtle Island. He was about to turn around when he felt a sudden hard slap on his back that knocked him over in the water. At first he didn’t see anybody else, and for a second he thought it must have been a wave that knocked him over even though no wave had ever done that before. He recovered his balance and started swimming toward Turtle Island. Again, another hard slap against his back knocked him over in the water again. This time he knew it wasn’t a wave. He scrambled to regain his balance and see what had slapped him. He managed to get his head above the water just long enough to see the very large tentacle of a very large octopus coming down on him for the third time. He quickly dodged to the side and the tentacle came down just inches from his head. Frightened and confused, Lonny tried to swim past the octopus. Slap! Another tentacle came down, causing Lonny to roll to the other side. Slap! Another tentacle came down! Lonny felt like he was just rolling in circles. The octopus had eight large tentacles and was using every one of them to block Lonny in his effort to swim toward Turtle Island. There was no way for Lonny to get past the octopus. He knew that if it managed to get one of those tentacles around him, it would drag him under and drown him. Turning around, Lonny did the only thing left for him to do: He began to swim as fast as he could away from the octopus and away from Turtle Island.
Lonny didn’t know how long he had been swimming. For at least a few hours the octopus had chased him, and Lonny had been forced to keep swimming as fast as he could to keep ahead of the tentacles that crashed down behind him over and over again. The octopus finally gave up chasing Lonny and disappeared, so he didn’t have to keep swimming as fast as he could. He was glad the octopus was gone, but he had another thing to worry about now. He was tired and in the middle of the sea. He needed to find land. He needed to find an island that he could rest on.
The sun began to go down and Lonny knew it would soon be completely dark on the water. He had always been fearful of the darkness. He preferred to be asleep in his nest when it was dark outside. He thought about his nest on Turtle Island. He had to find his way back there. If only he could find somewhere to rest tonight, he would make his way back to his real home soon, maybe even tomorrow.
Lonny kept swimming, even when it became completely dark on the water. He kept telling himself that if he could just keep going a little while longer he would find rest. He was still telling himself that when he finally came upon a small island that was half the size of his real home. He managed to crawl onto the beach and find a spot between two rocks where he could sleep.