Turtles

Date: 10/20/2016

I exited Ocean Centre mall (Hong Kong) with my good friend Howard. It was the late 80's, so the mall and street was not the high-end, uptown version it is today. My buddy tapped me and said, with a concerned voice, "check it out!". He gestured to a Chinese Medicine shop which had a huge bag of aged turtle shells at the front...dusty and a full green. I sighed and my eyes glanced upwards to see that live specimens were hung from the ceiling by string (still their vibrant, alive, golden brown colour and about 2' in diameter). Upsettingly, but also encouragingly, one was mid way through trying to escape. This had not been noticed by the shop keeper, who was studying a newspaper with the radio blasting. Mentally I was wishing the turtle all the luck in the world, but realistically it had no chance of escape because once out of his bondage, he was still faced with a road and pedestrianised street before getting anywhere near the sea - which lay around the corner at Kowloon Ferry Terminal. Surreally, perversely, and disturbingly, as the music blared out the other turtles seemed to move their heads and open their mouths as if singing the song which was playing. Poignantly the lyrics were: "You gotta stay put! Why are you moving so fast? You gotta stay put!" It was a rock song that sounded familiar to me. [On waking I remembered more of the lyrics, but now have forgotten them. I can recall the tune but don't actually know if it is a real song.]