Member-only story
A Study In Phytoplankton
A giant hook-nosed snapping turtle, slimy and grim
Across the road from where I am standing, two boys lean over the rail of the curved footbridge.
One is a lively morsel of a boy with a New York Giants cap on backward. The other is taller and somewhat thoughtful, with a tuft of sandy hair on his chin and a hunting jacket, patched, and too long at the knee.
A trifling wedge of cloud drifts across the sun, throwing the boys into shadow for an instant, then, sunlight returns.
“Look,” says the taller one, pointing at the river below.
Oozing out from the murky creek below is a giant hook-nosed snapping turtle, slimy and grim. They watch with interest as it toils up the bank through a profusion of poison ivy and clover.
Well, I wonder, who wouldn’t be grim after spending twenty-seven years up to his eyeballs in lime-green phytoplankton microorganisms and unicellular algae?
