Topsey

Clay Island was a large island. It lay several miles south of Topsail Island so, any visitors coming from Topsail Island had a long swim! The island had been discovered many years ago by the mermaid, Clayann, and the turtle, Patches. They had been caught in a bad storm and had washed up on Clay Island, battered and bruised. Clayann had pulled herself up onto the island and had noticed a large pool of warm

water, so she rolled herself into it and had spent the night there.

In the morning, she got up and looked around. She noticed a very strange smell on this island coming from steam rising from the hot pools. She also noticed that the surface of the island was a soft, sticky substance - it was clay! Clayann had heard about this strange island before but had never visited it.

She walked down to the beach and saw many of her friends, the Sea Gulls, walking around. She asked the Sea Gulls if they would go and find her Mermaid sisters and tell them where she was and that she was safe. The Sea Gulls chattered loudly and flew away. As Clayann looked around, she thought she saw a strange looking rock. When she got closer, she realized it wasn’t a rock at all, but a turtle. He looked terrible because he had many cuts and bruises on his shell. She walked over and said, “Little turtle, are you okay?”

The turtle lifted his head and said, “Ow-w-w-w-w-w. I hurt!” And then he said, “This place stinks!”

Clayann just laughed. She said, “Little turtle, it’s just the gas that rises naturally from these hot pools.” Then she took the little turtle over to one of the pools and slid him in.

He slept there all day and all night. The next day, Clayann took the turtle out of the pool and scooped up some clay and put it on the cuts around his shell. The sun dried the clay during the day. At night, the little turtle slipped into the warm pool. This washed off the clay from his shell as he slept. They did this routine for a few days and gradually his cuts healed. He felt so much better. Clayann found that when the clay had washed off, his shell was colored like the clay patches. So, she said, “Little turtle, I’m going to call you Patches, because your shell now looks like a beautiful patchwork.”

The turtle said, “What is your name?”

She said, “I will be called Clayann from now on, and we will call this place, Clay Island.”

From then on, Clayann and Patches went exploring on the island. They found it to be a wild place with lots of tangled underbrush and scrub trees. Clayann said, “I don’t think anyone lives on this island.”

Patches said, “No wonder, it smells so bad.”

Clayann laughed again. She said, “Patches, you’ll get use to the smell. Don’t let it bother you. Besides, my skin started feeling much softer after I slept in the warm pool.”