tortoise | Ramblings From A Mum

Written by a child for a child

I want to travel with the tortoise escaping in the middle night when my parents are sound asleep in their comfy beds.

I have planned my escape very carefully, each day when I returned from school I’d retrieve my pink vinyl covered notepad and scribble my getaway. my parents won’t be happy to see me go, they aren’t sure about tortoises, they would think I’m being silly. they would tell me to grow up and not talk nonsense, but it’s not nonsense to escape with someone you love. the timing must be right just after dinner I will ask mum for a sandwich. she will of course ask why, that I have just eaten and cannot be hungry. oh but I am mum I will answer I’m a growing girl after all. she will smile and make my sandwich. I will climb the stairs to my room and I know my heart will be racing so I must try very hard not to show my excitement. then I will wait and watch the clock upon my bedroom wall and listen to when the television has been switched off and their footsteps up the stairs. I need to stay awake, I need to. it is time, through the curtain on my bedroom window I see him waiting for me. opening my window which creaks I hold my breath hoping my parents will not wake and catch me. I am scared of the trellis of the height and hope I don’t get stabbed from the thorns off the climbing rose plant that dad planted two years ago. the trellis is broken in parts it’s old and mum has been telling dad to fix it for ever. quietly I step across the front lawn that crackles from the icy air. I have packed my drink container and my sandwich and a torch-light for the dark, even though I know my tortoise will know which way to go I’m still a little frightened of the dark. then I see him standing under the willow tree where he said he would be. I am so excited I run and climb upon his shell which is really his home sort of like mine and together we start our journey to far off magical places….I shall miss mum and dad but I love my tortoise too and they will understand..
let a child be a child and live out their dreams