Sand Turtles

CHAPTER 1 - THE SHELL ON THE WALL

Miguel was very happy. He was walking with Mama and his little sister, Anita. They were going to his grandparents’ house. Abuelo, his grandfather, always had lots of things to look at, and he always told good stories about the sea.

Abuela, Miguel’s grandmother, was making dinner. “Abuela’s cooking always fills the house with great smells,” Miguel was thinking to himself as he ran up the street. When they turned into the front yard, Miguel and Anita could smell fresh bread baking and something else wonderful that Abuela was cooking for dinner.

Miguel ran into Abuelo’s arms. Abuelo picked Miguel up and spun him around in the air. He put Miguel down and they walked out to the patio. Mama and Anita went into the kitchen to help Abuela with the cooking.

Abuelo sat down in his old brown chair, and Miguel climbed up and sat in his big lap. As Miguel sat there listening to Abuelo’s first story, he looked around the patio. Abuelo had painted the patio the day before yesterday and had moved everything around.

Miguel saw an old rusty anchor, some wire crab traps, a couple of fishing poles, a large wooden paddle, and other interesting things from the ocean. Little boys like Miguel would love to play with these treasures in make-believe games.

Miguel then looked up on the wall where Abuelo kept a large set of shark jaws. These were from a big bull shark that Abuelo had caught a long time ago. Miguel loved to look at the jaws, with their six or seven rows of razor-sharp teeth. Each tooth had edges like a saw blade. It looked like there were hundreds of teeth in that shark jaw.

Miguel felt both excitement and fear when he thought about the shark and how Abuelo had caught it.

Suddenly, Miguel saw something new hanging on the wall beside the shark jaws. It was a large brown shell. It was bigger than any seashell he had ever found. “What is that?” asked Miguel. Abuelo looked over and saw that Miguel was pointing to the shell.

Abuelo stood up, walked over, and took down the shell. He handed it to Miguel. He said, “That is the shell of the tortuga, the turtle with the pretty shell that lives in the sea.”

Miguel was surprised. “It’s almost as big as me,” he whispered as he rubbed it with his hand. “Where did you get it, Abuelo?” Miguel asked in a very excited voice.

“I’ve had that tortuga shell for a long time,” Abuelo told Miguel. He sat back down in his favorite brown chair, and Miguel knew that a good story was coming.

“Many years ago,” began Abuelo, “there were lots of tortugas in the warm Caribbean Sea around Playa Cocos. They swam around looking for food, and they came up to lay their eggs in the warm sand on our beach,” he told Migu