So look at this handsome fellow (or gal). I was recently on a walk with an old friend on a popular trail in Flagstaff, AZ when we saw a woman walking a turtle. I asked and was given permission to snap a quick photo:

Turtle on a Walk

So, what's the story here?

I'm a fiction writer, so give me that picture and that question, and I can come up with a lot of ideas. Here's a few off the top of my head.

  • His name is Glen, he's a were-turtle who was caught in an unexpected thunderstorm while out on a jog. As everyone knows, it's thunderstorms that turn ordinary humans into turtles once they've been infected, and Glen trusted the forecast when he shouldn't have, the Northern Arizona monsoon season being quite unpredictable. As it turns out Glen is a bit OCD about his running schedule, so he's still there completing the "run" in his turtle form. (Can you tell I recently wrote an odd "were" story?)

  • Her name is Annabelle and she is the favorite companion of a little girl named April. April and her parents just moved away, and somehow in the rush they left good old Annabelle behind. But Annabelle is a special turtle determined to reach her April one slow step at a time. Along the way she will, of course, confront dangers (including being swept away by a river), and meet new friends (notably an orphaned elk), but since this is clearly a Disneyesque story, she will be happily reunited with April in the end.

  • Grolock is an alien anthropologist studying our strange planet (yes, I wrote about an alien anthropologist recently). They (since their species only manifests gender when it's time to reproduce) are disguised as a turtle since that is the closest Earth animal to their natural form. They are here hoping to be "rescued" and taken home so they can further study our race. Depending on if we are talking good aliens are bad aliens:

    • Grolock will, after ten years with a family of five, determine our race is irredeemable and release a virus to wipe us out. Or will he?

      • If this is a heart-pounding thriller, the family will figure it out just in time and save the world.

      • If this is a down-beat critique of our race, we all die.

    • Grolock will, since he's a good alien, slowly, patiently guide the family that adopts them to become just the leaders our world needs to pull us back from the brink, all the while remaining hidden in his plodding turtle form.

So what is the real story? I don't know. I hadn't had much time with this friend and I only stopped long enough to snap the picture. My best guess is that this woman has a pet turtle who likes to go for walks.

What reinforces that view is that this fine turtle was over a quarter of a mile up the trail, the woman right next to him, as he hugged the edge of the trail.

The fictional stories are fun, but this was something I would never have imagined actually seeing.

Want more "What's the Story Here?" posts? Seems like fun to me. Send me an odd picture I can use for this and let's see what happens.