Chapter 3: The Amazing Turtle Rocket

Yes, Hubert made friends.

Hubert made LOTS of friends.

EVERYBODY loved Hubert. In fact, his turtle-domedness gave him status in the world of undiscriminating children, but that was only the start.

Kids lined up at recess to ride on Hubert's back; the teacher, Miss Gladstone, squawked that Hubert didn't want to give rides to others. "Are you kidding?" Hubert said. "I never said that!"

He'd take them on rides; he'd play the part of the friendly dinosaur, horse, or dragon offering safe passage on his back across the kingdom or swamp or lava field.

One day it rained, and this was the best day of Hubert's life.

The playground was as it always is when it's beneath dismal, cloudy skies and on wet, soggy ground: dead. Yes, kids populated it, but they weren't running kids, or smiling kids, or laughing kids. Nobody could do anything! The puddles kept children from playing sports, and the ground was too muddy for tag or hide-and-seek.

There was a hill on the margins. Hubert took two buddies on his back up to this place, with no intentions whatsoever on this dismal day.

It was this way that they accidentally discovered Hubert's most exciting gift: being a self-steering, walking, talking mud-sled. As the two friends blazed down the hill at unprecedented playground speeds, at their shrieks of delight all play stopped, all chatter hushed. Everyone turned. They watched with gaping jaws. As the amazing turtle rocket dragged to a stop, Hubert peered out of his shell and looked casually around, trying to hide his smile, but couldn't. The sun itself also peered, out of the clouds, just then and sent one lone ray on his glistening green head. All eyes were on him. And they blew up, cheering for Hubert, proclaiming him the hero of the day, rushing forward for their turn on the amazing turtle rocket, shouting and clamoring and fighting over him. All the rest of the recess was a long line of impatient, excited boys and girls, waiting their turn as the ones in front hurriedly escorted the royal Hubert up the hill in a wagon. Hubert didn't have to do anything, anything at all, except lean left or right now and then to miss a rock. He thoroughly enjoyed being treated this way.

And as Miss Gladstone's whistle blew, a loud groan went out.

And so his dominion over the elementary school grew and solidified. It was also his grip on life; he had life in a clenched fist, completely in his control, and he felt it too. He was slow both in speed and speech, was a head shorter than the rest standing up and a body shorter when he turtlized his stance. But if he noticed this, he paid it no heed. It was his attitude--as if he were there to lead the children into the Promised Land of fun and laughter-- that made him great, loved, and sometimes even feared, by girls and boys alike.

Pa would warn him not to get too cocky sometimes.