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There was once a turtle named Frederick. He lived in a tank inside the nicest Chinese buffet in all of Elliot, a small town in northern Florida. Of course, in this small town, there was only room for so many Chinese buffets. In fact, there were only two. But the one Frederick lived in was nicer and even had two aquariums harboring different kinds of fish, and of course, Frederick, the lone turtle.
Even though Frederick lived in the nicer of the two Chinese buffets, he was in the smaller tank of the two on display at the restaurant. He was upset by this and longed to be transferred to the bigger tank and have more room to swim. He was also sure that the other tank received better tasting food. Not only that, but every day kids would come up to his tank, stare at him for a few short seconds, and move on to look at the exotic colorful fish in the bigger tank across the dining area.
Frederick, in his humble home. - Photo Credit: pelican
Every Sunday morning was tank cleaning day, and on one of these Sundays the tank cleaner talked to the owner about moving the turtle in the smaller tank to the bigger tank for a while. Unfortunately, Frederick did not hear this, nor did he speak Mandarin. He was well acquainted with the tank cleaner, but was still wary of humans in general. He had seen many familiar sea creatures on their plates over the years.
Later, the tank cleaner reached down to grab Frederick and transfer him to the other tank, but Frederick had no idea what was going on. This man had never taken him out of the tank before. He immediately assumed the tank cleaner was going to make him into a turtle soup, or even worse, take him to live in the tank at the second best Chinese buffet in Elliot, an unlivable nightmare. He was beginning to panic and desperately needed to figure out how to save his own life...at least he thought.
As Frederick was carried across the lobby to the bigger tank, he saw his opportunity and went for a chomp on the tank cleaner's hand. His forceful bite landed on the tip of the tank cleaner's finger, and immediately the poor tank cleaner threw up his hand in pain and sent Frederick flying through the air.
Frederick soared through the dining room and landed plop back into his old tank. Everybody who witnessed the scene cheered. He could not believe it. He made it back to his old tank alive and in one piece. He was so happy that he was still alive that he had a new-found appreciation for life and no longer even cared about being in the bigger tank, even though had he not bit the man's finger, he would be happily swimming there now. Ignorance was, in fact, bliss for Frederick...at least for a time. It was not long at all before Frederick would swim around his tank and wonder just how great life would be if he could just be swimming around with the colorful fish in the bigger tank.
Author's Note
I loosely adapted this story from the Indian folktale of the Turtle and the Geese. The original story is terse, but I thought it had a fun punch to it. In the original, the turtle meets two geese and they become friends. The geese offer to take the turtle to a more beautiful home, but he just has to hold on to a stick with his mouth as they fly to it. Unfortunately, the turtle tries to talk while he was holding on with his mouth leading to an unfortunate conclusion. I decided to change the setting dramatically and extend the elements of the story in different ways. In the original, the fate of the turtle leads to his unfortunate death, whereas, my adaptation avoids the death of a turtle, although it does lead to him missing his opportunity to pursue his dream. This deviates slightly off the message of the original tale in a way that I think adds extra dynamics for the reader and introduces alternative themes like Frederick's temporary blissful ignorance. The geese from the original have been replaced by the tank cleaner. Although the tank cleaner and Frederick were likely well acquainted, it was ultimately Frederick's lack of trust in his caretaker that led to his demise, whereas the original demise came from the Turtle's foolishness. I hope that the direction I took did not take too much away from the simplicity and fun of the original, which I would highly recommend (link below, second story) you read if you already haven't!
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