Kawai the Sea Turtle

Sea turtles have always known the ocean is their home. They spend their lives in the water, coming to shore only once in a great while to lay their eggs in the sand. The little hatchlings break out of their shells and toddle down to the water, where they are lifted up by the waves and carried far away. Somehow they are born knowing where they belong.

But once there was a litter of baby sea turtles that never left the shore. The night they hatched, there was a terrible storm. The wind screeched above the waves and lightning broke the sky. The dark water flooded the beach and carried in strange spiky creatures from the deep. The scared little hatchlings scuttled back into their holes. And instead of living their lives in the ocean, they formed a land-dwelling tribe. They built a wall of driftwood, shells, and sand to block the sight of the sea that made them so afraid. And for many generations, these turtles continued to live among the dunes, burrowing tunnels in the sand, laying eggs and raising their young. Though their bodies were designed to swim and dive, none of them had ever ventured off to sea.

Among this tribe was a young sea turtle named Kawai, who lived with her family in the shadow of the wall. Kawai had always been very curious, and one day she asked, “Mama, why can’t we go near the water?”

“Kawai! We do not speak of it. It is forbidden,” her mother replied.

“But why? It makes such a sweet sound. I want to go see it.”

Her mother stopped her with a flipper to the shell. “The sea is filled with dangers, Kawai. The elders say there are monsters that live beneath the waves. And they say the waters rise without warning to pull young turtles out to sea, never to be seen again. Never, ever go near the water, Kawai!”

The young turtle had heard these stories all her life, but now, she was beginning to wonder how they could be true. She wanted very badly to climb over the wall and find out.

That night Kawai dreamed the waves rolled up the beach and gushed down through the tunnels. It found her there in the cozy cranny where she slept with her family. As it filled the hole, they were all afraid and didn’t know what to do. Kawai awoke with her heart racing. She needed to see for herself whether the water was rising, so she silently slipped away from her family, climbed the wall and walked down to the water’s edge.

Kawai looked out at the enormous ocean and felt afraid, thinking of her mother’s many warnings. She was about to turn to go back to her hole, when suddenly she heard a voice call out, “Hello!”

Kawai peered out over the waves, and in the dim moonlight, she saw something out there. It was white, with a long beak, curved and pointed at the end. It floated on the surface of the waves, bobbing up and down.

“Nice night for a swim,” said the seabird.

“A swim! No. I don’t swim. I shouldn’t even be here. My mother would…”

“What do you mean you don’t swim? You’re a sea turtle, aren’t you?”

“Well, I…I…” Kawai stammered.

“What else do sea turtles do but swim?”

The seabird splashed his feathery wings into the water and dipped his beak a bit.  “Come on in. The water’s fine.”

Kawai looked back over her shell toward the wall. Behind it, the tunnels of her tribe lay hidden in the dunes. She imagined her family sleeping peacefully in their hole in the sand, and part of her wanted to go back to where she would be safe and dry. But she couldn’t stop thinking of her dream, of the water that flooded their homes.

She looked back toward the seabird. “But I don’t know how!”

“Yes, you do! Look at those flippers you have. They were made for swimming.”

Kawai moved one of her flippers in the water and noticed how easily it glided just below the surface.

“It does feel nice,” she whispered.

“Come on,” said the seabird. “You’ll love it, I promise.”

“All right. Here goes.” And with a deep breath, Kawai plunged her body into the sea.

“That’s it!” cried the seabird. “Now, swim to me. Use your flippers!”

Kawai began to move her flippers forward and back. They sliced the waves easily.

“I had no idea!” said Kawai as she neared the seabird. “This is amazing! It’s so much easier to swim than to walk on the sand.”

“Of course it is. You’re a sea turtle. You were made for the water. Just like I was made for the sky.” And with that, the seabird spread his wings. “Have a nice swim!” he said as he lifted off and flew away.

Kawai laughed as she swam back to shore, then out again, then back again, then out again, venturing out a little further each time. She dipped beneath the water, then surfaced, then went down again deeper to touch the bottom, then surfaced again with a spray of water from her mouth. In all her life, the young turtle had never felt so free and so alive.

“They don’t know what they’re missing,” Kawai thought. “The ocean isn’t dangerous for sea turtles. We know how to swim!”

Kawai glided back to land and hurried up the beach. “I have to tell everyone,” she said. “I have to make them understand.”

At that very moment, miles from the coast, the earth began to quake under the sea. It sent a great wave rolling toward the turtles on the shore. But Kawai did not feel the quake, nor did she see the wave. With joy in her heart, she climbed the wall and returned to her tribe as the first light of day appeared in the sky. Out of each hole in the sand, the members of her tribe began to emerge.

“Listen, everyone!” she called. “I have something to tell you.”

The sea turtles began to gather around Kawai.

“I was just down to the water’s edge,” she said.

A fearful murmuring broke out among the crowd.

Kawai said, “There is nothing to be afraid of.”

“One so young cannot know the dangers of the sea,” said the elder.

“But I have been in the ocean,” said Kawai. “I swam in the ocean. And it was wonderful! Not dangerous at all.”

“This cannot be,” said the elder. “It must be a lie. We do not swim.”

“But we can swim,” said Kawai. “It is what we were made for! Come to the water, and let me show you!”

Suddenly, a wave of panic spread through the crowd of turtles as their eyes turned upward and out in the direction of the sea. Kawai turned to see a wave coming toward them, so high it towered over their wall of shells and driftwood. Terrified, the turtles began to turn back toward their holes.

“No!” Kawai shouted. Her mind flooded with images of her dream. “Do not go into your holes. If you do, you will drown when the water washes over us.”

“But what should we do?” said one.

“When the water comes in, begin to move your flippers like this,” she said. “The water will lift you up, and then you will find that you can swim!”

Kawai’s confidence comforted the turtles as they realized they could not escape the wave.

“Don’t be afraid,” she called. “Just move your flippers and hold your breath, and we will be alright.”

The turtles turned toward the water and waited. Just then, the wave washed over the beach, smashing the wall, flooding the holes, and lifting the turtles up. Following Kawai’s lead, they all began to move their flippers, and just as she had said they could, they all began to swim.

The current was strong; it pulled them inland, but the turtles rode the wave, flapping their flippers and staying afloat. And when the water subsided, every turtle had survived.

From that day on, this tribe of sea turtles no longer stayed on land.  With joy in their hearts, they swam deep into the depths and spouted water in the sunshine as they surfaced. And they never were afraid to swim again.

And Kawai grew to become their courageous leader and their most honored teacher.