Summary: Talking About Turtles
Chapter 30 # 1
Junior describes the reservation. It’s filled with ponderosa pine trees. Some of the trees are ninety feet tall and 300 years old. One tree past Turtle Lake is the tallest, at least 150 feet tall. He remembers how, when he and Rowdy were ten, they climbed that tree. One hot summer day, Rowdy pressures Junior to go swimming at Turtle Lake. Junior says no one has been able to measure the depth of Turtle Lake, not even scientists with a small submarine. Once, Junior’s dad told him that, as a kid, he watched a horse, nicknamed Stupid Horse, drown in Turtle Lake. A few weeks later Stupid Horse washed up on the shore of Benjamin Lake, ten miles away. Everyone thought someone moved the carcass as a prank. Some people took the horse to the dump and burned it. Then, a few weeks after they burned the body, Turtle Lake caught on fire. People stayed away from Turtle Lake for a few days, then they found Stupid Horse washed up on shore again. Before long, people forgot and started swimming in Turtle Lake again.