Tuck lived in a beautiful park on a big lake in sunny Florida. One morning, as she and her friend Marvin munched on their breakfast grass at the shore, a head popped up out of the water, startling them.

“A new kid! Let’s go say hello,” Tuck cried.

“Not me,” said Marvin. “Where did he come from, anyway?”

“Don’t you want to make a new friend?”

“I have enough friends, and anyway, he looks funny,” Marvin said and walked away, mumbling under his breath.

“Well, I’m going. I like to make new friends,” Tuck said, and she walked right over to the water’s edge.

“Hi. I’m Tuck,” she said. “What’s your name?”

“I’m Snapper. I just moved from across the lake.”

“Your shell is flat and your feet are webbed,” Tuck said. “I’ve never seen that before.”

“That’s because I’m a snapping turtle,” Snapper said. “Your shell is bumpy and your feet are stubby.”

“That’s because I’m a tortoise. I’m also a kind of turtle,” Tuck said.

“So, we’re sort of cousins,” Snapper said.

“Let’s play!” Tuck said.

Snapper said, “I’ll race you to the other side of the lake.”

Tuck frowned. “I can’t swim,” she said. “I live on land.”

“And I have to spend most of my time in the water,” Snapper said.

Tuck thought for a minute, then said, “Let’s play here on the shore of the lake.”

“Okay!”

From then on, Snapper and Tuck played every day while Marvin stayed at home and moped.

Snapper and Tuck played tag.

They played red light–green light.

They played Frisbee, catching the disc in their jaws. When Tuck threw it over Snapper’s head and it landed in the water, Snapper swam out and picked it up.

After a week had passed, Marvin got up from his recliner chair.

“Enough moping,” he said. He left his burrow and headed toward the lake to see what Tuck was doing.

He hid behind a big rock and watched as Tuck and Snapper played hide-and-seek. He saw Snapper settle himself in a big patch of ferns, or sometimes under a bush. And he watched Tuck laugh every time she found him. A tear ran down his cheek.

It was now Snapper’s turn to seek. While Marvin stayed hidden, Snapper poked around trees. He pushed aside giant ferns, looking for Tuck.

Then he came to the big rock and found Marvin.

“Oh, hello!” Snapper said. “You surprised me! I’m Snapper. Would you like to play, too?”

Marvin blushed from his head all the way to his toes. He said, “No. I was just passing by.”

The next day, while Snapper and Tuck were playing leapfrog, the sky turned dark. Rain poured down. The wind whooshed.

Tuck shivered. What would she do if her burrow flooded?

Snapper called, “Tuck, let’s run to your house! We’ll protect it!”

“But you need to get home, too,” Tuck said.

“I’ll go later. Remember, I’m used to being wet.”

The friends ran as fast as their little legs could take them. They gathered mud and twigs and built a strong wall.

Carol Goodman Kaufman