Snack for a Crocodile.

The crocodile yawned; he opened his big wide mouth and yawned.� His shiny white teeth gleamed like rows of white stars in the moonlight.� He slowly opened one eye and looked down the lonely beach.� Nothing moved; all was quiet.� No sound at all.

He moved from the water's edge to a stony ledge against the tall cliffs on the beach.� The day�s sunshine had warmed, the rocks, and the crocodile let the warmth spread through his body from head to tail.� He stretched lazily.� �I'm not very hungry, yet� he thought to himself, �but perhaps later on, I could do with a little snack.�� Then he licked his lips.� �Maybe I'll just have a quiet snooze for a few minutes.� And he closed his eyes.

Not far away, in the sea, a mother turtle was swimming to the beach.� She was feeling very uncomfortable because she needed to lay her eighty-two eggs.� They were heavy insider.� She left the water and headed for the soft dry sand near the sand hills, pushing forward with her strong front flippers.� She hadn�t gone far when she is smelt a smell of danger: maybe the smell of a crocodile.� She turned and looked back at the sea but nothing was there, so she started on her way again.� Such a tiring journey it was, but bravely she pulled herself forward.

At last, she found a good patch of soft white sand, just right for a nesting place.� Using her front flippers, she began digging very fast to make a hollow, big enough for her, in the sand.� As she worked, great showers sand were thrown into the air. �Silvered by the moon they made a shimmering, sparkling curtain behind the busy turtle.

The crocodile opened his eyes and saw the clouds of sand.� He knew exactly what was happening; he�d seen turtles nesting before.

�Aha -There's my little snack� he thought, and he slid quietly from the rocky ledge to the beach.� He crawled quickly up the beach, until the flying sand sprayed his head and misted his eyes.� He was nearly there.� The turtle was facing away from him and didn't see him until � snap! the crocodile opened his mouth to grab her.� But his mouth couldn't quite grip the turtle�s wide, hard, slippery shell, and she slipped out of his grasp.

Such a shock from other turtle!� She stopped her digging and moved faster than she ever had before, down to the sea.� Half running, half sliding, the crocodile chased her.� He caught up with her again, but again his mouth didn't quite hold her, and she kept moving.� She reached the sea, with the crocodile, close behind her; she knew that she could swim faster than he could, so she rushed into the water and paddled quickly away.� Perhaps tomorrow, she would lay her eggs.� Yes, it would have to wait until tomorrow.�

The crocodile sulked.� �Oh well, I'll try for crabs instead.� Anyway, she�ll become back tomorrow (turtles always do) and I'll be waiting for her.�

A long time passed.� About two months afterwards a boy and his dad pulled into the lonely beach in their fishing boat.� The man reached for his sandwiches and spoke to the boy. �Good spot for lunch Tom, but keep an eye out for crocodiles.� There could be some in the sea around here.�

They finished eating and were just about to leave when the boy pointed to hundreds of tiny marks on the sand. ��Look, Dad. Tracks - Fresh ones!�� And they saw that the trail of a crowd of baby turtles � hatchlings - which had made their way in the dead of night, safely to the sea.� The boy and his dad followed the trail back to the nest near the sand hills; they dug down and down again further, and further still; right down into the deep round egg chamber that the mother turtle had made with her back flippers, until they found an enormous pile of white, soft, leathery eggshells.� The boy counted them: ten, twenty, fifty, seventy, eighty-two.� All of those hatchlings had broken out of their shells, pushed their way up through the sand and scuttled to the sea.�

As for the crocodile, he soon forgot about the night he failed to have a midnight snack of juicy turtle.� Whenever he was hungry he always managed to find crabs and other tasty mouthfuls.

Gwenda Jeffrey 4 October 2000