Fred was a turtle. He had his faults, all turtles do. Laugh all you want, but Fred knew who he was. He was honest, for one thing. He would never cheat you, or lie to you. Maybe he tried too hard sometimes; okay, he knew that about himself. It was his nature. Fred was a giver.

Lots of turtles made fun of him. He understood. Turtles were turtles. They went off and did their turtle thing. He heard about the parties he was never invited to. It was okay. Turtles can be mean sometimes. And maybe it wasn’t being mean. Maybe it was something else. Whatever it was, Fred was fine with it.

He wasn’t the most handsome of turtles. He knew that. And he was neither the smartest nor the most agile. And he didn’t have that natural gift of gab like a lot of turtles. But he liked himself, finally. After ninety-five years he knew who he was, and he could smile now when others made fun of him. They were just being turtles after all.

Anyway, as everybody knows, when a turtle turns ninety-five, he’s got to make a few decisions in his life. Fred was thinking this very thought as he sat beneath the waves on his favorite flat rock, and there, near the surface, he spotted Daphne swimming by.

Now, you got to understand, Daphne never gave Fred the time of day. She never seemed to see him. She was one of those turtles that always swam with her nose in the air. He watched her passing up above. Sure enough, she went by without so much as a howdy-do.

One of these days he was going to have to make a move. He was ninety-five years old and it was time to settle down.

There she was again! Fred was surprised when he saw her swim back, going the other way now.

“Hello, stranger!” he thought to say and rejected it. “Want some company?” That would be better. Yeah, that was much better. Or maybe, “Hey good looking, mind if I swim along with you?”

Fred watched her going past him as usual, her nose in the air, and it wasn’t until she gave him a look, and slowed down, that he realized his chance.

Fred swallowed hard and made the decision and was off in her direction.

Daphne seemed to be waiting for him to catch up.

“Hello there, Daphne,” Fred said. “Want if I… I mean… would you mind if I--”

“I don’t mind at all,” said Daphne. “It’s about damn time you came out of your shell!”