The Pond

The Pond

Image Prompt

"Well, crap."

Sheldon, the turtle,  wiggled his legs. He lazy kicked them back and forth, increasing speed as embarrassment at being in this particular situation was outweighed by the need to flip back over. Not wanting to cry for help, Sheldon helplessly whirled in circles as he tried to flip himself upright again.

"Are you okay?" he heard a tiny, concerned voice ask. His movements stopped.

"No, it's okay Georgiana. I'm just, you know, chilling," he responded, trying to sound cool. It was a bit difficult to do so since the pressure on his throat was making his voice a bit squeaky.

"But isn't it uncomfortable?" Georgiana asked, lowering her head so Sheldon could relish in his humiliation face to face.

"Oh, no!" Sheldon said, causing a coughing fit since he actually couldn't breathe very well. When he calmed down, he wheezed, "I don't feel pain."

"You don't feel pain?" Georgiana asked, doubtfully.

"Don't worry about me," Sheldon said, "Just, um, go ahead and walk without me. I'm fine here."

"But Sheldon," Georgiana insisted, "you said you had something important to ask me."

She was right, of course. Sheldon did have something to ask her. He'd been waiting up until this particular outing to ask Georgiana Caretta, the most beautiful turtle Sheldon had ever seen, if she would like to go on a date with him.

He'd planned it all out one hundred different ways. He'd woo her with a cattail bouquet and they could dine on a beetle fillet with a fly crumble pie for dessert. Or he would take her out on the pond log so they could get a good view of the great night sky and the lights that glimmered in the dark. If he'd gotten really lucky, he planned to take her back to a hiding place he found and share the delicious yellow sponge material with a white, jelly-like inside that smelled like nectar.

None of those plans incorporated him on his back, steadily losing all oxygen.

"Please let me help you," Georgiana insisted. Sheldon was about to relent when he heard hooting and hollering in the distance. "Oh no, that sounds like the Clemmy Brothers!"

No one ever wanted to mess with the Clemmy Brothers. Bob, Ron and Lila (no one really knows how she adds into the whole "brothers" business, and it's best not to ask) were the meanest turtles this side of the pond. Their hobbies were ruining Mr. Chelderson's garden, tormenting the neighboring frogs, or generally making Sheldon's life a living hell.

"Hurry, Georgiana! Get out of here!" Sheldon said. At least if she wasn't there she wouldn't be in the crossfire between them. Or at least she wouldn't see how awfully they picked on Sheldon. After all, it was their fault he was like this. Before the turtle of his dreams showed up for their planned meeting time, he'd had the misfortune of running into them and they, as they were ones to do so, flipped him over.

"No!" Georgiana said. "They don't scare me. Come on Shelly!" With that, she ignored Sheldon's protests and flipped the poor turtle over. Immediately oxygen began rushing to his head and he could feel his feet again. At the look of relaxation and relief, Georgiana smiled. "Better?'

"Much," Sheldon admitted with a small grin, and before the nasty Clemmy brothers could slither their way over, Sheldon and Georgiana made their getaway to hide amongst the cattails.

"Now," Georgiana said. "What did you want to ask me?"

"Um," Sheldon began, suddenly realizing how frightening this actually was. Granted, it had taken him an entire five moon cycles to even fathom asking Georgiana out, but now that it was looming so near...Sheldon gulped.

Georgiana looked at him expectantly.

Sheldon held his breath, suddenly getting a bit panicky.

The expectant look became one of concern."Sheldon?"

"What?" Sheldon suddenly exclaimed. "Oh, right! Um...well you see...er..." he drifted back to quietness.

He tried calming down.

Georgiana was getting impatient. "Sheldon, just tell me what you need to! I promise I won't get mad." Suddenly she began looking worried. "Unless you're mad at me for something?"

"No!" Sheldon responded, wishing he could just slink back into his shell. "You don't do anything wrong, Georgiana. You're perfect."

He swore he could see the green skin flush. "Really?"

"Of course," Sheldon confirmed. "No other turtle could ever match up to how..." he trailed off.

"How?" Georgiana encouraged. Sheldon realized she had gotten rather close all of the sudden. That probably wasn't the best idea, suddenly worried that he was a bit smelly. And he hadn't taken a dip in the pond for a while and his feet were muddy.

"Well," he said, and took the dive. "How much I like you, Georgiana."

Sheldon wondered if something were going wrong. Even in his dreams, he'd always had to do a little bit of convincing for Georgiana to believe him. In this strange world he was in, she just laughed and moved even closer.

"I was wondering when you'd say that."

Sheldon took a step back in utter surprise. Unfortunately, that made him step in a rather thick, wet pile of mud. He slid down and with a yelp and a flip, he was on his back again.

"Well, crap."