QUASI - contents, PART I

QUASI

My Friend with the Hunchback Shell

by June Oshiro Saito

 

CONTENTS

 

PART 1 QUASI’S ARRIVAL p.2-11

1 The Montys, 2 A Midnight Walk, 3 Coffee,

4 They Called it Heroism, 5 Nightmares, 6 The Rock

 

PART 2 QUASI GROWS ON US pp.12-20

1 Juggling in the Air, 2 The Kawasemi, 3 Not a Problem,

4 Quasi’s Swimming Friends, 5 Goodbye Monty, 6 Wasted Tissues

 

PART 3 QUASI’S MEMORIES pp.21-29

1 Rockette’s Winter, 2 Play, Forgive, Rest, 3 Seeing Quasi,

4 Two Terrorists, 5 Parting with Serra Fin, 6 Rainbow & Butterfly

 

PART 4 QUASI ADDS ON pp.30-38

1 Trusty Friend Coffee, 2 Lenny, Tai, 3 Carp Old-Timers,

4 Flying Ballerinas, 5 Snappy’s Still Here, 6 Hodgepodge Birds

 

PART 1 QUASI’S ARRIVAL

1 The Montys

  Apparently, when Quasi came to Iwatsuki Park, she was a mass of mangled turtle, and she was almost thrown out with a bunch of broken lawnmower parts, but an animal-loving custodian who, passing the trash pile, couldn’t believe his eyes—there’s a poor turtle in there—kept that from happening. With keen eye and gentle fingers, he carefully separated the animal from the blades, then brought her to his own cabin to nurse her wounds.

  Of course, at first, the turtle could not eat or drink. After a while, it stirred, and the man wondered if it might drink some water. It did. The turtle would not die. Gradually, very gradually, it got stronger. But once it started moving around, recovery was fast. The man admired his courageous little friend.

  “I know you’re an adult turtle,” he told her one day, “but after that beating you took, you’re going to have to learn to walk, swim, dive...everything, all over again.” The man took her to the Montys, turtles that taught orphan turtles everything that turtle parents usually teach their hatchlings. Maybe they would help this poor turtle. Or would they be confused if the man brought an adult turtle to them?

  The man did not have much to be worried about. When he took the turtle to the Montys, altho’ at first they looked around for a hatchling, a moment later, the turtles were staring at each other and standing stock still. The man realized they were talking, turtle style. Moments later, the turtle twisted his neck and looked back at the man.

  “Go on; let ‘em teach you back to living ‘full turtle’”, he said.

  So the turtle followed the Montys to Step Creek, where, the man supposed the turtle felt at home, because after this, she never once returned to the old cabin.

The turtle remembered and loved the man who saved her life. But he wanted her to live “full turtle”, right? Didn’t that include not going to places humans lived? Actually, something Quasi herself wasn’t aware of kept her away from the cottage--we’ll get to that later.

2 A Midnight Walk

 After several weeks with the Montys, the turtle left Step Creek and made her way to the deeper pond on the other side of the park. Her injuries had been serious, and her turtle shell, instead of being a single dome, was battered down in the front. But this only meant more drag in the water, so more work for the turtle, and slower moving, but it could be done. So she dove into the pond, determined to swim there—even if she were the first turtle with a shoe-shaped shell to do so!

  But unfortunately, altho’ the man was happy that the turtle was better; altho’ the Montys were glad she was sure enough of herself now to live on her own; and altho’ the turtle herself was satisfied she was able to handle her new shape…others around didn’t feel the same way. A lot of people walking through the park, if they saw the turtle swimming, would yell out, “Ooh! What’s that?”

  This made the turtle feel so uncomfortable, she preferred to swim at night, when people wouldn’t see her. She didn’t want to come out during the day.

  One night, when out for a swim, some humans came to the bridge on a midnight walk. The husband noticed the turtle and pointed it out to his wife.

She saw the unique shape of the shell and thought about the extra work it must be for the turtle to have to lug it around. But it must be a strong turtle to do so, she thought. That’s like a character in literature that had a curved backbone. He was very strong but had a gentle heart, and he was named Quasimodo. The shell is like the turtle’s backbone, isn’t it? She wondered if she could call it “Quasimodo of Iwatsuki Pond”. But that was too long.

Her husband asked if she could just speak of it as the turtle with the different-looking shell; but yuck; that took no imagination.

  Then “Quasi” for short? Yes. She liked “Quasi”.

  After this, whenever she came to Deeper Pond, she found herself looking for a turtle with a distinctive shell. She used to think turtles were kinda boring, but not anymore; since that midnight walk, she was hopelessly hooked.

 

3 Coffee

  Coffee. Quasi liked Coffee.

  Oh—not “coffee” as in the beverage, but Coffee the black crow. He was a shy bird, but Quasi was afraid of chatterboxes, so Coffee and Quasi got along. Coffee left Deeper Pond and flew around to the other side of the park to tell Quasi what was going on.

  Those human beings she had just met, in fact—that person that had given her the name “Quasi”—was the one that had named him “Coffee,” and had been making friends with a lot of animals in the park, giving them names too. Coffee’s bubbly companion, for example, she’d named “Cola”.

  And what friend was she making now, Quasi chuckled.

“A white carp she named Serra Fin,” Coffee answered. “’Serafim’ is a type of angel, I think.”

 “I’ve heard of Cherubims, but not Serafims,” said Quasi.

“Right! When a red carp came to the pond, it was named Cherry Fin, after th-that!” Coffee stuttered.

 Then he added, “Anyway, Serra Fin, that white carp, swims in the shallower Duck Pond on the other side of the park.

  She—this human-- talks to it every day for about 30 mins. and then goes for a walk around the park. She ends her walk each day with another 30 min. talk with the carp.”

  “Does she ever talk with you?” Quasi asked.

  “She calls me to come closer instead of staying on the treetop, but I never answer; pretend not to hear.” Coffee said, picking at his claws. Then, more to himself, “After all--Serra Fin is there to listen to her. I don’t think she really needs me.”

  “I’m sure she will someday;” Quasi said, “Stay close to her Coffee. By the way, did you catch her name? Can’t keep calling her ‘She’ and ‘her’.”

  “June.”

  “Jane, huh? Right; first time you talk to her, you can say, ‘Hallo, me Toffee; you Jane!” remembering the Tarzan books he heard.

  “not Jane; Ju…”

 

4 They Called It Heroism

  A big white bird came flapping in. “Need a lift, Quasi?” he asked. Seeing the crow, he looked questioningly at the turtle.

  “Oh; we were tying things up when I called you;’ Quasi told the big bird. “Cab, this is Coffee, my trustiest friend. Coffee, this is Cab, like a 24-hour Superman who takes me anywhere.”

  “Wow—what an intro!” the egret said. And he winked at Coffee, but Coffee just awkwardly cocked his head and blinked.

  “Cab, can you take me to the Montys at Step Creek?

“Step Creek it is!” Quasi pulled into his shell, which the big bird lifted into the sky. No sooner had Cab come, he was gone.

  A note fell from the shell, which read: “NICKNAME CABOOSE GIVEN BECAUSE HE WAS ALWAYS LAST TO GO TO EVENTS”.

  Later on, Coffee asked Cab how Quasi got this “airtaxi” service. He was told she once protected a chick from a predator, and now all the egrets were at Quasi’s beck and call for life.

  Quasi, saying it was more of an accident than a heroic deed—wanted the “actual ” details recorded:

  A baby bird fell out of its nest, and a large cat roaming the field found it and was about to hurt it. Quasi was up on the hill above it digging for bugs, and bit off some berries from a branch nearby. She lost her balance; came tumbling down the hill; crashed straight into the cat’s face. Quasi herself, not knowing what happened, relieved she was saved from falling backwards into the valley, smiled and was going to hug the cat, her lifesaver. To the cat who just had her head bashed in, Quasi looked like a horrible monster with black, torn meat and blood oozing from her mouth from whatever she’d eaten before. When Quasi lifted her arms, the cat screamed and ran off, to the cheers of the baby egret. Grateful adult egrets gathered moments later, carried Quasi on their shoulders, and promised her lifetime service. Nothing Quasi says seems to sway them from their homage.

  What really happened, we may never really know. Anyway, Cab took Quasi to Step Creek and set down the shell softly in front of the Montys, then tapped on the shell with his beak: “Here, Quasi.”

 

5 Nightmares

  The Montys were watching the egret in the sky, but something else was more important to Quasi. “Please, could you help me with something?” she said to her adopted uncle and aunt. The wise turtle couple turned their attention to the young one before them.

  Quasi was troubled every day by six things: 1. rotating blades; 2. loud roaring sounds; 3. the words: “Oh no—I’ll just blame it on the turtle”; 4. red heat; 5. white rage; and 6. a black “clang”. They were driving her crazy.

“What do you think they mean?” she asked them.

  The Montys looked at each other. It was time Quasi was told; she wasn’t a hatchling just out of her egg.

  “When you were asleep Quasi, your brain showed us images of a horrible experience you had before coming to the park. But unless you get a handle on this, you won’t be able to go forward. So we’ll tell you simply what we saw, okay?”

  Quasi had been a pet turtle, owned by a little boy. who forgot to lock the gate one night. Quasi wandered out into the yard then got caught in a moving lawnmower. The rotating blades of Quasi’s vision were the mower; the noise was the motor; the words were the boy who, instead of apologizing to Quasi, blamed him for breaking the machine (which they threw away with the turtle still inside.) The “red heat” was the pain, the “white rage” was the disbelief of being blamed for the accident…but the last “black clang” probably saved Quasi’s life: a large rock got caught in the blades and stopped them from turning and cutting Quasi to shreds.

  “While you were having that nightmare,” the Montys told Quasi, “you kept saying, “It wasn’t my fault.” But when you woke up, you forgot all about it, so we never said anything. You made such good progress; we didn’t see a need to talk about that nightmare. But it sounds like you’ve had some bad flashbacks.

  “But what can I do?” Quasi asked; “I can’t go back to that home and get that little boy in trouble for leaving the gate open.”

  The Montys seemed to be thinking hard.

 

6 The Rock

  A smile spread across Monty’s face. “I got it!” He said. “The Rock.”

  His wife and Quasi said together, “The rock?”

  Monty said, “Just a minute,” and left the room, came back with an orange-ish rock.

  His wife asked, “Is that what stopped the mower blades?”

  “Oh, no such thing. It’s much too small and weak for that. A rock like this couldn’t keep a mower’s blades from turning!”

  Quasi looked at the rock. “You’re right. It does look much too small to do any damage to a lawnmower. Then…what is it?”

  “Here…guard it with your life!” Monty said, handing it to Quasi. “I need to check up on our hatchlings—sounds like they got into some mischief--I’ll get back to you, okay?”

  When his wife was about to say something, she heard Monty’s cry. Something akin to apology crossed her face. “Maybe we’ll talk again another day, Quasi, Sweetheart?” she said as she hurried away. Quasi smiled. They probably never have a boring day.

“You know what else I just now realized?” Quasi thought. “Now I know why I couldn’t go near that custodian hut. The Montys probably knew too. Just outside the backdoor is the lawnmower the man rides to trim park lawns. He thinks he keeps it covered, but humans forget turtles see things from the ground. So what it looks like to us, is a caped monster with steel teeth.”

So—she couldn’t go back to the family who’d owned her as a pet, and the man who’d saved her life—his place was off limits too?

  Quasi looked at the rock Monty had handed her. “I hope this is good. What is it? Where did he get it?”

  But Monty said he would tell her later. Maybe for now she would just get Cab to take her home. Then she studied the stone from various angles but could see nothing unusual. Would Cab know?

  “At least the Montys know what happened to me before I came to the park,” Quasi thought, “And why my shape is the way it is, why I’m all chipped and flecked.” With that, Quasi pulled herself into her shell and decided to be ready to go when Cab arrived.