The Turtle

 

               

               Penelope was sound asleep when her phone rang.

               “The turtle is out again,” said the voice on the other end.

               “Darn it,” Penelope said. “I was having an amazing dream that I was in Egypt. The pyramids were amazing.”

               “This is no time for dreaming! Get up and go find that turtle!”

               Penelope was not worried. She knew exactly where it was. There was an apple tree down by the bridge and the turtle loved to eat the apples that had fallen down. As she made her way down the hill, she wondered how it got out this time.

               “Silly turtle,” she said as she reached down and picked it up.

               When they got back to the lab, Penelope put the turtle back in its cage and set up a camera to find out just how it was getting out. As she watched the footage in the next room, she noticed the turtle stick its head through the bars of the cage and stick a piece of straw into the keyhole in the padlock. The lock popped open and the turtle crawled out.

               “Fascinating,” she mused as she walked back in the lab to grab the turtle before it could leave the room. She put it back into its cage again and swapped the lock for one that used a number combination instead. “Let’s see you get out of this one.”

              
“Stupid human,” the turtle replied. “Your locks cannot keep me contained.”

               Penelope stared at the turtle, not knowing what to do. When it winked at her, she fainted, so it proceeded to work on the combination for its next escape.