0aeaa1e36e6f2e625b6ba8d48f773062

The water tanks—there were five of them—were easily five feet high and twenty feet wide, and spread out along the basement. The bags of fish food were stacked high along one wall, and tubes led from the tanks to a machine presumably designed to make sure the water was fit for turtle habitation. From his high perch in the only window the basement sported, he had a good overview of the tanks, and saw that the turtles ranged from tiny to a little larger—though still reasonably small—and wondered how they were possibly going to free all of these turtles—or even if that was such a good idea.

“So now what?” he said once he’d taken all this in, and had determined that the ‘pond’ Pinkie kept mentioning was in fact these tanks her friends were kept in.

“Now we liberate my friends,” Pinkie said.

“You really expect all of these turtles to escape this place?” said Brutus, balking at the sheer enormity of the task. “Pinkie, there must be hundreds of turtles—thousands.”

“Oh, you bet. Maybe more,” said Pinkie. “So let’s get them out of here, shall we?”

Brutus had jumped down from the window and glanced up at one of the tanks, and saw that a small stepladder had been placed against the side, presumably for whoever operated this breeding farm to feed the animals. He mounted the steps and found himself looking down at the mass of turtles. The sides of the tank were smooth and straight—impossible to scale.

“How did you get out, Pinkie? How did you manage?”

“One of the guards left this fishing net in the pond,” said Pinkie, “and so I walked across it and then onto this ladder and out through the same window we got in.”

“It could probably be done,” Brutus had to admit. Though it would take a long time—a very, very, very long time—for the entire basement to be cleared. And in the meantime whoever was in charge probably wouldn’t stand idly by while their precious turtles escaped from right under their noses. “Look, it’s late already,” he said. “We better come back tomorrow. I’ll ask Odelia and Chase to help us, and together we might be able to pull this off.”

“No way!” said Pinkie. “Your humans will never agree to help. They’re humans, Brutus. And it’s humans who’ve been keeping us all prisoner down here in this pond.”

“My humans are not like that, Pinkie,” Brutus assured the tiny turtle. “They’ll do what’s right. In fact,” he said as he gave the matter some more thought, “Chase might be able to look into this operation, and when he finds that these turtles are being kept or bred here illegally, he’ll close down the store and the animal welfare people will come in and take you all away to safety.”

“I don’t know,” said Pinkie, wavering. “I don’t really trust humans, Brutus. They’re mostly mean, as far as I can tell.”

“I promise you that my humans aren’t mean at all. In fact they’re very nice. And they love animals.”

“Even turtles?” asked Pinkie dubiously.

“Even turtles,” Brutus said with a smile.

“Okay,” said Pinkie finally. “If you think this is for the best, I trust you.”

“You’ll see,” said Brutus. “Everything will be all right, Pinkie.”

And just as they were moving in the direction of the window again, suddenly the lights in the basement came on, and a loud voice said,“How many times do I have to tell you to close that window, Johnny!”

And before Brutus and Pinkie could skedaddle, the basement window was slammed shut.

Oh, boy, he thought as he contemplated his options.

He sure was in a real pickle now, wasn’t he!

Chapter 21

“Babe?”

“Mh.”

“Are you asleep?”

“Iwas asleep,” said Odelia, digging her face deeper into her pillow.

“I just saw the weirdest thing.”

“What?”

“Your mom and Randy. Hugging. And Randy was naked and your mom was crying.”

Odelia lifted her head from her pillow to take in her partner. His profile was illuminated by the light of the moon filtering in through the curtains, but she could see that he was staring at the ceiling, his hands behind his head, and he had a look of profound shock on his face. Presumably the same look of shock she herself was now displaying.

“My mom and Randy? Are you serious?”

“Dead serious.”

“Well, she’s always been a big fan of his routines, but this?” They were both silent for a moment, then she said, “Do you think they’re having an affair? Behind my dad’s back?”

“I don’t know. But it sure looked like that to me.”

“Oh, dear. Dad will be devastated.”

“Hopefully he’ll never find out.”

“Don’t you think we should tell him?”

“Absolutely not. Like you said, it will destroy him.”

“The affair will probably be short-lived,” Odelia admitted. “Did they see you?”

“I don’t think so. They were too busy… doing whatever it was they were doing.”

She squeezed her eyes closed. She could just picture her mom with Randy and it wasn’t the kind of image she wanted in her head. “You know? I always thought Randy was… you know, batting for the other team.”

“From what I saw, he’s definitely batting for Marge’s team. Things were heating up in there. In a big way. What I don’t get, though, is why she was crying.”