To My Tortoise

Source credit: Hub Bub

I was clipping my tortoise nails when it happened. The first three clipping went okay. Then, after I clipped one nail on its right foot, a bead of crimson blood swelled, growing. It was a reddish grain that condemned. I knew that there were veins in a tortoise nail. I wasn't supposed to cut off too much nail at one go.

Poor tortoise, poor tortoise. I kept apologising to it but it ignored me. I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have been so careless. I shouldn't have been greedy and lazy. I shouldn't have thought that it I cut off more nail, I wouldn't have to trim the nails for a longer period of time. Great gods, I'm so sorry.

But the tortoise ignored my mortified mumblings. It didn't even hide in its shell. It simply walked about in its tank. To express my apology in the only way I could, I threw in two succulent pieces of cucumber. Food. That was my inadequate way of saying sorry. A food-sorry. The tortoise seemed okay. He even smacked his friend on the head with the injured leg four times when they were fighting over a slice of cucumber.

Maybe that injury wasn't that serious. Perhaps my tortoise didn't even feel the pain. Maybe it was like the little cuts across my leg that somehow happened. The kind that I'd accummulate unknowingly throughout the day and only notice during the peaceful hours before sleep. Maybe little pains just don't matter.

Yes, maybe little pains just don't matter.