Kip The Turtle

• Blake Meneilly, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2012

A long time ago there was once a beautiful garden hidden deep in a dark forest. Everyday after school, the children who lived in the village would go down to the garden to play. Living in the garden was a lazy turtle named Kip. It was Kip's job to make sure the water in the pond would not dry up, for if it did then the garden would die, for summers presented no rain.

The seasons whirled by in a blink of an eye and soon summer came, and Kip was still sleeping. And he slept...And slept...And slept and did tend to the pond. Eventually the pond dried up. And the garden slowly died. The children stopped coming and Kip was without a home.

One day, Kip awoke to find not even the slightest trickle of water. "What have I done?" Kip said in anguish. All seemed lost, but Kip did not give up. Kip began to dig channels, great channels that lead to oceans and mighty seas. Water began to come, small amounts but it came. Soon, a small puddle had formed. Then it grew, and grew, and grew, and grew and soon it was not a pond but a huge lake.

The garden regrew and the children returned, now adults, and erected a new village next to the lake. And wise old Kip tended to the lake and spent the rest of his days playing and swimming with the many, many new generations of children.