Leatherback and the Strange Place

By Shubhra Shah

Leatherback is a hundred and something years old, and finds Queenie the cat and Loro the parrot too rowdy! But she likes Sara, who once was the girl with no confidence. How Sara turned her weakness into strength is a story to tell.
One day, Sara’s mother vanishes into thin air! The animals decide to solve the mystery that has left the Seed household frozen. Leatherback and her team decide to investigate the suspects’ houses to look for Lolita.
The secret and the stories that they discover in the houses leave them shocked and startled. But where was Lolita? Who had taken her?
All Leatherback had wanted was a quiet summer, but she had no idea that she was about to enter a whirlwind of mysterious secrets and adventures.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Srishti Publishers
• Release date: Sep 10, 2019
• ISBN: 9789387022744

Book preview

everything.

Prologue

My name is Leatherback, and I’m known to be quite meticulous about everything.

No, Tanya, no! You cannot do this to me. I will never agree. You cannot force me. Hey! Stop lifting me and putting me in this horrible basket!

The problem with Tanya was that, although in reality I was her torty mother, she was under the impression that she was my mother. Sometimes, mommies end up doing whatever they feel like without asking whether it is alright or not. I was more than a hundred years old and Tanya had decided that I was to spend this summer with that annoying cat Queenie without running it by me. Being hundred and something of age, I think it was about time that Tanya respected my wishes! She just started packing up my stuff, and my stubby little legs and hands just could not run fast enough to hide somewhere. Summer with Sara’s Queenie? No, not happening!

I am Tanya’s pet tortoise and have been with this family for a long time now. Last summer, Lili, Tanya’s mom, and I had helped Tanya and her school, Hartson High School, win the most prestigious trophy in the inter-school swim meet. Oh, that story is something amazing – how her mother Lili came through, coached her and helped her to become a swimming champ.

Tanya was competing at the state level this summer and was leaving for the venue. This good news turned bad when I heard that pets were not allowed to travel with their humans, not even a docile little thing like me! So, it was decided, without any regard for my wishes, that I was to spend this summer with Sara.

Sara was Tanya’s friend, whom I had met for the first time last summer on the school’s pet show day. She was a very sweet girl with angelic eyes, but had been teased mercilessly by some girls because she used to stutter a bit while talking.

She was neither bitter nor irritable, just sad sometimes, but about her pet cat Queenie? What can I say?

Queenie was this obnoxious little cat who did not think twice about anything, just stretched wide and far, left and right, as if trying to cover the whole globe with those big furry paws of hers, flopping over and going to sleep anytime, anywhere. She could look right in your eyes and yawn in your face! How rude!

Though she was nice to Sara, I was not so sure about the rest of us. She had this regal,almost condescending look about her, as if the entire world was infested with nothing but her little minions. How utterly rude!

Now, I had to spend days with her! Tanya and Lili smiled at me as I glowered at them from the basket.

Before this, I had tried to hide under the bed. I did slink off to the bathroom and sat quietly behind the pot. I also went to the laundry basket and tumbled in the dry warm towels, but it was hopeless fighting these humans. Wherever I hid, they found me.

Amazing that they can never find simple things like socks or happiness, for that matter, but they managed to find me and send me on my way. My heart was beating like a choo-choo train because it seemed like I had no choices left. Does it happen to you humans too? Where your heart is going left, just not beating right, thumping like an uncontrollable drum, but you sit calm and collected like an iceberg in the ocean so that no one can see what you are going through? So here I was, sitting with my chin resting on my stubby little hands, waiting for Sara to arrive, to take me to that dreaded cat Queenie!

1

Misunderstanding

Sara’s house had a different feel to it. It was nothing like Tanya’s house. I could smell something, but could not really place it.

Sara’s mother Lolita was a small, delicately-built woman with soft blue eyes that looked like they knew the meaning of pain. I could see where Sara got her good looks from. Lolita smiled when she saw me, but the smile did not reach her eyes. Now I am an eye person. I always gauge a person by their eyes. Though Lolita’s face did light up seeing a cute torty like me, her eyes did not. Oh dear! What had Tanya gotten me into?

My only saving grace was that Hedgy was also coming to stay at Sara’s. Hedgy was Tanya’s and Sara’s best friend Rita’s pet guinea pig, the smartest one around, and we got along beautifully.

Then suddenly in the far corner, I beheld a strange sight. A small boy who did not look more than ten to twelve years old, was playing the flute, and stranger still, a parrot was dancing to his tunes! Now I had never seen a bird, that was not caged, in a human house. What was this?

Queenie was in the other corner sleeping! (What was new about that?)

Once Sara placed me on the floor, I started to move towards the boy, completely drawn to his music and cherubic looks, his blue eyes were more stunning than Sara’s or Lolita’s. They were like this blue gem I had once found in Laguna; the place I came from.

That boy had a magnetic feel about him, which was pulling me towards him. Was it the flute? Was he like the Pied Piper? Oh my god! Could he draw us animals to some unknown place, stupefied, mesmerized, and enchanted? My head was saying, Do not go near, but my senses were numb to these warnings and with my head reeling, feeling heady with the tune of the flute, I inched towards the boy.

It was no ordinary melody; he was playing the most beautiful tune I had ever heard, enticing and hypnotizing, all at once.

Then, suddenly, I could see nothing! There was some gooey smelly liquid covering my head and eyes and all I could hear was a squeaky, squawky, screechy sound on top of my head. Don’t you come near my boy! Don’t you come here! That scamp of a bird had splat on me! With the gooey, smelly liquid all over me, I peered at the boy who had now stopped playing. Seeing me in this state, he laughed out loud, the sound resonating through the whole room. Well, it was only laughter, but the whole house was startled. Queenie woke up. The wretched parrot froze. Everything was moving in slow motion.

Sara picked me up and exclaimed Precious! Oh my p…p…precious, you have made my brother l…laugh!

Lolita was crying, no, actually, she was bawling and wiping her nose, which was bright red.

By now, Queenie was alert and looking at me with a lot of interest. That was new! Miss Royalty was not flicking her ears at me, and that wicked parrot looked dazed. What had I done? Would someone please tell me? The boy had just laughed. The parrot looked almost apologetic for misunderstanding my move towards the boy; he had that expression which said he was only protecting him. From me? Hey! I am the most docile creature on earth!

After Sara had wiped me clean, she put me in my basket again and placed me near Queenie, who looked at me keenly and smiled; she did not seem as bad as I thought she was.

I think I had misunderstood her.

This feeling called misunderstanding is a strange affliction we all have; it makes us assume things that may not always be true. I think I had completely misunderstood the cat, the same way the splatterer had misunderstood me.

Then the parrot came and sat beside me, not speaking, not saying a word. The three of us sat in silence. It was this silence, which broke the ice between us, and then, she began her story…

This rare talking parrot had come all the way from the luscious, ever green forest called Fruityberra and had been as usual stolen by petty thieves just like I was from my home, Laguna. She was bought for this boy, Neel, who was Sara’s brother.

They had named the parrot, Loro¹. When Neel was given the cage with Loro inside it, for his birthday, something had happened to Neel, seeing a bird trapped inside a cage. He shivered, and took Loro out with his gentle hands, kissed her head and set her free. It was then that Loro fell in love with this blue-eyed boy who could not bear to see her in a cage.

Loro did not fly away, and astonishing the humans, she slid right back into the cage. Is it true that when you love someone you agree to live in a cage? All your life? It was love that made Neel release Loro, and it was love that made Loro stay. The strongest factor which keeps the universe going – love. The backbone of love, liberation!

Love is not a game, don’t make it into one

All that blaming all that shame

A battle lost or won?

There are no rules in love

It all comes from within

If you gain in love, it’s a win

If you lose in love, just give in.

Love is what completes you

But only if it’s in consent

It will hold you back at the same time release you

Confuse you, leave you content.

A mother’s love, a father’s love,

A brother’s love, a lover’s love.

A warmth from up above

A guiding force for everyone,

It’s love that truly heals

Have you seen a mother kiss her child’s wounds?

It’s surreal.

Some days, you feel high

Some days you spiral down at the blink of an eye

It wipes your tears, it makes you laugh,

Smile, cry and even sigh!

It repairs your heart, it dispels your fears

Sometimes love pours out in the form of tears

Sometimes it makes you smile ear to ear

Love will flow if you let it be

It’s not love if it makes you expel injury

Force it on someone, it turns into misery

Strange that it binds you, but only if you set it free.

What Loro told me next left me flustered – Neel never spoke! Neel never spoke? What did she mean by that? The fact that he had laughed out loud a little while ago was a first in many years.

Loro had come to this house when Neel was just five years old. But she had not heard him utter a