Here’s what happened: a turtle surfaced on the lake. She started as a turtle the size of a quarter, green and black, with the sun glinting off her back.
Later, as we remember her honestly, she was actually the size of a dinner plate, with a head like a log shooting up from the water. We have eye-witnesses.
Within a few days, the turtle grows to mythic proportions: she’s more like a small boat, a Loch Ness Monster, who reveals herself to only the precious few, the chosen ones. I saw her as I stood alone with my thoughts, the sun placing a golden shawl on my shoulders. She was enormous.
Each time we discuss the turtle, she grows in size, expanding as far as we need her to.
And we keep searching the horizon for her canoe-sized head. We know she’s there, swimming in the depths. Even if she never surfaces, we know the truth.
She’ll keep growing, as she should.