Turtle Heaven by Damien Barrett On the edge of a dusty, potholed, blacktop road in upstate New York lies the bleached remains of a large snapper turtle. The shell is cracked and the soft tissue inside is withered away into nothing. Alex poked it with a stick. "Don't mess with that, Alex. It's just a dead turtle. Leave it alone." "But, Mom. Shouldn't we bury it? It's dead...we bury dead things don't we?" Faith grimaced. Yes, we bury dead things, she thought to herself. Like David. It had been over a year and still the hurt hadn't faded. She hadn't brought her son out to the country to think about David. The opposite, actually. Faith had thought that some new scenery and fresh country air would help her refocus on her life, help her to get back on track. Losing David was something she was trying not to think about. It would be better to forget about the past and move on. Looking down at the dried-up remains of the turtle, she saw nearby the small bodies of the mother turtle's young, also withered and parched-dead. Faith fought hard to hold back tears. She didn't want Alex to see her crying. It was easy to see what had happened. The mother turtle and her young had been trying to cross the road. Probably late at night, things were going fine until a speeding truck crushed her rear side, killing her instantly and knocking her to the side of the road. Her young, so faithful, had probably remained at her side, waiting for their mother to lead them to safety. Dehydrated, they died one by one, not far from the decimated remains of their mother. "Alex. Get the shovel out of the truck and bring it back here," Faith said in a cracked and tired voice. She would give the dead turtle her due respect. Far more than David got, anyway. Faith carefully scooped up the remains of the mother turtle and her young and carried them several yards into the grassy embankment. There, she dug a hole and laid the bodies down. And, carefully, so carefully, she filled the hole back in, placing scoopful after scoopful of dirt on top of the turtles, hoping for them a safe journey into whatever heaven dead turtles reside in.