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Darwin’s
Turtle
By
S.E. Diamond
____________________
Darwin's tortoise turns 173 years young
GOLD COAST, Australia (CNN)--Harriet, a giant tortoise believed by some experts
to be the oldest living creature on Earth, celebrated her 173rd birthday Friday
at an Australian zoo. Harriet was given a serenade of "Happy
Birthday" from local schoolchildren, and zookeepers brought her colorful
flowers and a cake to celebrate her big day. She promptly ate the flowers.
Genetic testing on Harriet showed that she was probably born in 1830. Local lore
has it that at the age of five, she was taken from the Galapagos Islands to
London by none other than famed naturalist Charles Darwin.
You make my grandma seem young. Your skin is harder than my grandma’s, but you
have more mystery. My Dad is a scientist and he took me to see you. My Dad has
thick,
heavy brown glasses, and it was a long plane ride to get to you. I ate lots of
peanuts and drank ginger ales. Dad read books.
We were coming for you, Harriet, because you were brought halfway around the
world to us. Dad’s scientist friend arranged for you to come from Australia to
England for a special science show. Dad said you used to live on the Galalmosot
islands. You must miss your palm trees, but Dad said the ocean is great in
Australia as long as you wear nylons to protect your legs from the poisonous
jellyfish.
During your trip you stayed at the science petting zoo. Since my Dad was in the
business, we got to go backstage and pet you. A tall lady with red hair took us
beyond the paper turtle, past the lines of kids, back towards your cage. Dad
brought his science camera. It was really big, and I was embarrassed walking
around with him and his big camera. It was so big he had to carry a stand for
it. The lady told me that the other kids had to see Harriet from behind glass.
It was to protect Harriet, she said, because here in England people have more
diseases than in Australia. It’s probably from the lack of sun. There’s
goodness in the warmth down there.
You looked cold in your cage. And I don’t know why there was rat food in your
bowl. At home, Dad has lots of rats in our garage, in cages for
experiments, and they like their food, but the information sign said you like to
eat flowers. Haven’t they given you any flowers?
I sit down on the cement next to your cage. The tops of my fingers fit into
holes in the chain link fence all
around you. I wanted you to tell me things that only an old turtle could, like
what color the dinosaurs were. Dad said you’re not that old, but he laughed
and said you could tell me about 19th century occurrences like slavery in the
West Indies. The guide lady added that slavery was bad. Her hair was the color
of the peanut wrappers from the plane, but her accent made me feel warm. She
cleared her throat slightly and asked my Dad if he, being a scientist, thought
Harriet was really Darwin’s turtle. My Dad was looking down at me when he told
her that the specimen was a tortoise, and it was pretty unlikely. Dad said
Darwin’s real pet tortoise was rumored to have been killed in a bombing in
1943, and this ‘Harriet’ was a replacement, a symbol for the pseudo science
aficionados. I hate my Dad sometimes. Harriet got mad too. She turned towards
him, and bit down hard on my ponytail. When my Dad finally pried open her jaws,
her mouth was full of my hair.
____________________
S.E.
Diamond has an irrational love of dogs and the television show Psychic
Detectives. S.E. is about to complete an MFA from the Otis College of Art and
Design, and works for the Slamdance Film Festival in Los Angeles.
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