Bruce Cameron

Editor’s Note: The following column was originally published in 2008.

My next-door neighbor Tom called me the other day, frantically asking me to come over because his turtle ran away.

“Wait, your turtle ran away? How is that even possible?” I demanded.

“I must have left the door open to her cage,” Tom explained.

I thought of a different question. “Since when do you have a turtle?”

“That’s the point: I don’t. She ran away.”

A few minutes later, I was standing with Tom in his backyard, looking at a large wire enclosure with an open door. Tom was upset. “We have to find her before she wanders in...