The Turtle and Other Stories by Bert Brun

By Bert Brun

In "The Turtle", a blustering entrepeneur gets his comeuppance from an imagined performer. In "The GLA's Great Day", two gun promoters are surprised by a turn of events. In "Strange Love", an insect and a human forge a new relationship. In "Cissie's Hair", a narcissistic young woman meets a bizarre admirer. In "Good News", a black youngster has a crucial job interview. In "Hari Raya", a bloody Indonesian ritual takes place. In "The Spring Garden", a dying woman is humored by her loving husband.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bert Brun
• Release date: Sep 21, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301416721

Bert Brun

Retired oceanographer. Also worked as a high school teacher, rubber plantation inspector in Sumatra, and fisheries administrator in New Zealand. Bachelor and master degrees in science from New York state universities. First got the writing bug while in college and have published eight books in last 10 years plus three plays produced. Lived in eight states, most recently in Alabama, with wife Ann, four dogs and seven cats.

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The Turtle and Other Stories

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2012 by Bert Brun

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Table of Contents

The Turtle

The GLA’s Great Day

Strange Love

Cissie’s Hair

Good News

Hari Raya

The Spring Garden

The Turtle

One, two, sometimes three to a line, the blowfish came squirming up to the slimy boards. At dusk, the run had picked up again. Their grinning captors quickly strung the hooks with squid once more to renew the attack. Softly grunting, their emerald eyes growing duller, the striped creatures wriggled ever slower. The glut had made even the children grow weary of scratching the sandpapery, inflatable bellies.

From the shore a few yards away, a cry came up.

Turtle –Turtle--Turtle!, screamed an unbearably excited small boy .

A small exodus hurried across the rickety bridge connecting the floating raft to the restaurant on the shore. A knot of twenty people had already gathered. All eyes stared it was, indeed, a turtle , a mammoth turtle. Several mouths gaped at the sight. A few recovered their powers of speech.

Wow, would you look at that!

Billy, you get away from that thing! Get away, I said. Suppose he took a nip out of you.

Jesus must be five foot long. Never saw no turtle like that before!

Looka those flippers.

Hey Billy, look at me!

The turtle balanced flatly on its feet and flippers. Throughout the hubbub it remained impassive. Occasionally it blinked its large black eyes.

A young fellow came through the nearby restaurant door. Hey, get away, you kids, he yelled.

He assumed a proprietary, but unsure, stance near the turtle. One of the fishermen queried him.

Yeah, got ‘im this afternoon, about ten miles out. Trolling for tuna and we see these three dark things in the water up ahead. Thought they was porpoises or sharks at first. Then we got real close and we saw what they really were. Big sea turtles. Just floating along on top of the water, takin’ the sun I guess. Other two dived, but I managed to get a gaff under this one’s shell, just as he started down…

He turned toward another man. What? Oh – ‘Bout three hundred pounds, at least. Christ, he was so heavy we had to put a second gaff under his tail to haul him in …

The inattention of his captor and the continued docility of the turtle had emboldened some of the children. One straddled,