Upon Closer Inspection: Mildly Interesting

It is a beautiful day at Enigma University, the sun is in the sky, the birds are in the trees, and the freshmen have just finished making their parents and upperclassmen haul their excessive junk up endless flights of stairs to their horribly plain but cozy dorm rooms. It is here we find Jackie, a future anthropology and studio art major, who was lucky enough to get a single on her otherwise roommate littered freshmen hall. She wanted to take time to set up her room, so her parents took their rental car and sped off into town to buy some last minute supplies. She looks around her single, which was completely foreign and a skeleton of what a college dorm should be like. Jackie sets her sights on making this room more comfortable when she hears a small voice cut through the cluttered noise of move in happening all around her.

“I am not sure where that goes love, Try again.”

Jackie looks around the room in caution, as if looking around an empty room would somehow stop anyone from hearing the voice that just spoke. She walked over to the water tank that had been carefully placed on her desk and knelt down so she was eye level with the mobile home. Inside lay Milton, a 10 inch Northern Map Turtle, who was sleeping peacefully in his semi-underwater habitat.

“Milton shut up, you are talking in your sleep again.”

At these words the turtles eyes slowly opened, and they glared at Jackie with as much intensity as a turtle looking at a human could possibly have.

“And you figured the solution to this was to wake me up and make me talk more?” Milton asked, swimming up to the surface.

“Well if you are going to be talking, I'd rather it be with me so I have some company while I unpack.”

“Are you not worried about someone hearing me or something? Do you want to be known as the girl who talks to turtles? The turtle talker? The great green gabble? The reptile...the reptile...damnit I had something for this...”

“The Reptile Reciter?”

“No no it wasn't that, but good try though.”

As Milton was lost in thought (still clearly trying to think of a clever name to insult his owner with), Jackie began unpacking her suitcases. She thought about what Milton had said, about being known as the crazy girl who talks to turtles. In a moment of despair she thought that maybe her turtle was right. It then almost immediately occurred to her that she would have full on conversations with Milton regardless of whether or not he had the ability to speak back. With her insanity freshly re-affirmed she continued unpacking until she heard a voice speak up again.

“What's this place like anyway? I can't really see much considering I spend my life trapped in a box.”

Jackie rolled her eyes, Milton's main tactic of asking Jackie for something was to complain about his sorry turtle existence.

“You know, you get more with sugar than with salt,” Jackie states as she rolls her sleeves up and grabs a towel from her luggage in preparation to remove Milton from his tank.

“I can taste neither sugar nor salt,” Milton replies in a monotone voice.

Jackie lifted Milton out of his tank and proceeded to put him on the towel she had placed next to it. She then dried him off, ignoring his cries of uncomfortableness as the towel covered him. After he was dry enough, Jackie carried him over to her window and placed him on the windowsill in such a way that he could see outside.

“Wow...its so sunny here. I hate it,” Milton said coldly, never having been a fan of the heat.

“Ugh, you are so unreasonable after you nap, I give up.” Jackie walked away from the window, leaving Milton to fend for himself.

“No wait, Jackie come back. What if I fall?” Milton tried not to move, which even for a turtle is hard to do once you start thinking about it.

Jackie and Milton proceeded to argue with each other, as they have been doing for about a year now. But outside the sun still shone and the birds still flew. One way or another this was the start of something mildly interesting.

End.