Turtle Dream

I have no date on this story, but the paper is yellow at the edges, and it was written on an electric typewriter, probably around 1990. This was an actual dream I had, and I wanted to write it down, because instead of the usual nightmares, I had an animal adventure and felt safe, safe and comfortable for that short dream.

I was hanging suspended in the clear cold water beneath a thick sheet of ice. Kelp was growing high in all directions as far as I could see, a dense underwater forest. The world I had left behind was wintry, frozen, and covered in snow. I felt comfortable now, and relaxed. My persecutors had not followed me into the lake. They never did. In the water, I was safe.

A young sea turtle was swimming into view right in front of me, lazily foraging on the kelp. Suddenly, it dived to the bottom, picked up a rock as big as its head, crunched it in two with its powerful jaws as it rose, and swallowed one of the pieces. After swallowing, it sank to the bottom and came to rest in the sand, unmoving.

It all happened faster than I could react, but now I got moving. Knowing I was breaking the law, but worried about the animal, I dived after it and gently picked it up by the rim of its shell. It's head and legs hung limply as I swam towards the surface.

With a powerful push of my head, I broke through the ice into the chill winter air. I climbed onto the frozen surface of the lake, still holding the turtle. He moved a bit now and settled himself into my arms.

As I was scanning the frozen lake, I saw a beautiful sea snake rest on the ice, only twenty paces fro where I was standing. I realized that it was huge, much bigger than anything I had heard about in Jeff's talk, but it definitely was a sea snake: the small head, the stripes, and especially the flat tail left no doubt. The snake was resting on the ice. It completely ignored me. I sneaked closer to get a good look, then listened to caution and backed away before it took any notice of my daring approach. Besides, there was a turtle to take care of.

The young sea turtle was doing quite well by now and seemed happy to be with me. The effects of eating the rock had completely disappeared.

So, I dived back under the ice. I gently released the sea turtle and watched him slowly swim away into the kelp.