My New Blog!

HEYO JAMMERS

I'm so happy to present you my very own new blog!

And here's a story

Sorry It's pretty long!

Anyways, Jam On Jammers!

In the Shell

My name is Green. I was born from an egg in 1825 at the Galápagos Islands, a time when there were many tortoise hunters. I didn’t understand why so many hunters searching for some tortoises to feast on since I was so young. Though life as a tortoise was hard in the 1800s, I always had fun, munching on fruit and meal worms. I had fun rolling around and playing games with my friends too. As I grew there were not that many tortoises because of the hunters.

Then in 1834 I was munching on the grass when I suddenly saw a ship coming my way to the island, I heard it was called the Beagle. Afraid that it meant that more tortoise hunters were coming our way, I quickly hid under a bush with a hole to look out. Instead of seeing men with guns off the ship I only saw one simple man, who wore a long coat and had very big brown curly sideburns on each side of his face. Surprised, I crawled slowly out of my hiding place and came forward to the stranger. I looked at the man wondering why was he here. The man still staring at me walked around.

Stopping, he took out a long slender ruler to measure my height. He studied some more on my weight, color, diet, and life. As he was doing this he took out a small notepad, along with a pen, I guess he was writing down the things he was studying about me.

Then I heard him say to himself: “This could lead to something, maybe how humans came to Earth, animals turning in humans instead of god making people.”

“Maybe, Darwin, maybe, the idea seems a bit to wondrous.” Said someone behind him, “I’m pretty sure this case will prove that really animals turned to humans.” Darwin said back “Your imagination is getting too wild, god made people okay? So just try to get rid of the idea.”

“Okay, I will try to.” But I could tell that Darwin could still be thinking of the idea he had in mind. After that the talk they had they left.

Still thinking about the stranger, I walked back to my shelter and talked about the stranger who was no hunter at all but maybe a traveler. As I talked about him I got interrupted by a friend,

“He could be an undercover tortoise hunter. Or maybe even a global weatherman.”

Still clueless, I decided to ignore the thought of the strange man and ducked back into my shell.  Seventy-four years later after the strange man’s visit more people came to the island, none of them were tortoise hunters.

‘Maybe they are weathermen.’ I thought. ‘But why would weathermen want to go to this island?’ Right after I thought about it a friend behind me muttered

            “Scientists, Green, they’re scientists,” one of my friends behind me said. I looked up and saw people at me and muttering words I didn’t understand. Suddenly, without a warning, I was picked up by a dark haired man, who carried me in his arms as I struggled to get out. But his strong arms made it harder to get out so I gave up. As he walked he locked me in a cage and I was driven away from my wildlife home.

            Confused, I ducked into my shell. Then the whole car went to a halt. The man picked the cage up and I was back outside. I thought I was going to go back home again. I couldn’t see so I couldn’t tell, but instead I was dropped off at a science lab. I lifted my long neck out of the shell and crawled around. It didn’t feel warm, but it felt cold and lonely. Looking up I saw a woman sketching out something, maybe me, on her notepad. The she picked me up on the table and walked around me, pointing at me, she said,

            “Take the tortoise to the zoo.”

            “And why should I?” asked the man,

            “It seems to need a little vacation from his wild home, anyway, just take him to the zoo.”

            “So you told me to bring this tortoise just for you to see and send to the zoo?”

            “Yes, now just take it too the zoo please.” The woman said impatiently.

The zoo: I heard about that place from my friends, they said they trap you in a cage and you will never be free again and all you got to eat at the zoo was cheese! How can I live there? How come these people were sending me to the zoo?

Then I was sent back to the cage and there I was, in the zoo. But instead of cheese feeding or trapped in cages, I got a home with friends. And I got something better to eat than just fruit and wet grass, I got fresh dry green grass to eat, mud to roll in and clean water. Even though life in the zoo had more freedom, better food, and people feeding me well, I still missed my other friends in the wild, where they got to see the sky and where is was more spacious, while I had to look through a hole just to look up and living in a cramped room. A few years later in 1901 I was put back in the cage, wondering why, I let them take me. Then after a few hours of driving, I found myself back into my wildlife home my friends greeting me by lifting up their long hidden necks. I had a life of adventures, seeing a strange man who might have made a new discovery, dodging a life of tortoise hunting, and living at the cramped zoo. I am now an old tortoise and that was my story to you.

By,

VERA T. J