Topsey

Topsey told them all about his accident and how he lost his vision.

Suddenly, they all noticed that someone else was coming into the cave. There were two large turtles, and they were pulling something between them wrapped in a net. They swam right onto the sand, and Mother Turtle pulled the net back. Out popped the head of a little turtle. Waxie, Maxie, Cheryl and Beryl all stared in amazement.

Father Turtle said, “This is our son Tivy.” They all continued staring at Tivy because he didn’t have any front flippers! All he had was two little pointed arms where his front flippers should have been.

Mother said, “Tivy was born this way, but we think he will be a good student.” She said, “If you need to take Tivy anywhere, he can back up into the net and you can pull him.”

Then Mother and Father Turtle left. The other turtles all continued to stare at Tivy. Tivy was struggling to crawl up further onto the sand.

Topsey said, “Uh, welcome to our school Tivy.”

Tivy broke out into a big smile and said, “Hi, everybody!”

Tivy was so cheerful that everybody else smiled too. They all gathered around Tivy and helped him climb up onto the sand. Topsey knew he had a big job ahead of him! After everyone finished talking about their summer adventures, they settled down to start their school day. Topsey told them they would be learning some new camouflage techniques and self-defense skills, and he had a big surprise for them. He told them Mermaid had taught him to paint this summer, and this semester they were all going to learn how to paint, also! He showed them some his painting he had done. All the turtles clapped their flippers, except for Tivy, of course. But Tivy was excited, too.

Topsey thought to himself, “What have I done? How am I going to teach these little turtles to paint?”