The Turtle

When a person dies at the end of a long life, we tend to look at that life as a whole. We put our own appraisal of that life's value based upon the distance of our view, or how well we knew the deceased.
When a child dies, the parents and other members of the family cannot comprehend that child's life as a whole because it did not include a future. Yet the life had value, and as time goes by, we realize that the value of a child's life is the sum of all of its moments. Perhaps that is the value of everyone's life, young or old. The following is a moment in another kind of life.

At the bridge repair with a stoplight, a large pickup was parked with the front end slanted just over the center line.  The stoplight was necessary because the bridge was being repaired one lane at a time. The pickup and my car would have to move to the left lane to cross the bridge when the light turned green. I stopped quite a way back as the light was red. Oncoming cars had to move to the edge of the road to get around the pickup that was so close to their own lane of traffic. The light turned green, but the pickup didn't move. I stayed where I was, wondering if there was an accident. Just as the last oncoming car passed, the pickup moved in a large arc so that both of its left wheels were on the center line, but moved no further when the light turned green. Then I saw the biggest turtle I've seen "in these parts," nearly as big as my tire, although agreeably a Prius tire isn't all that big. The pickup moved slowly forward and stopped, and I thought the driver finally determined the turtle to be dead. "Big T" was flat to the road, and his head, feet and tail were out of his shell. I pulled up close to the pickup, but near the side of the road. The car drove up behind me, and seeing the turtle, stopped. As I looked down at the turtle, I saw no gore, and pulled up so that the turtle was a few feet behind my car. The car immediately behind me was about 2 lengths away. The light turned green, the pickup stayed, and my stopped car went to energy mode, running silent on electric. That was when the turtle became wild and crazy (for a turtle). His head stretched out, he rose on his feet and (very slowly) finished crossing the road between my car and the car behind me. After another green light, then red, then green, the pickup slowly pulled ahead across the bridge and I followed, watching the rear-view mirror. The turtle disappeared into the roadside weeds, having lived another day.