Sam the Snail

Chapter 1

Disclaimer:

The following is an accurate tale of Sam, the Snail.

Sam knew from a young age that he was not meant to be an ordinary slug. Since he was a baby, his shell had been a colorful yellow with two dots and an upwards pointing crescent stripe - attracting much attention.

In fact, the doctor who delivered him had almost dropped him in surprise. His mother, after seeing her son for the first time, had declared that his chosen marking was a sign from above. Furthermore, it is common knowledge that putting on a happy face means someone's planning a good time.

Shortly after delivery, Sam's mom died peacefully in her sleep taking away the pain of childbirth. Even in the face of misfortune, Sam was fortunate. He had his looks.

Growing up, Sam swam the freshwater of his home with his cousins. He enjoyed the yummy green-brown waters at the bottom of Lake Turpentine. Here, aqua foliage was plentiful and small schools of grey fish were abundant. There was always plenty to eat and, for most such life forms, there's not much else to do but eat.

Ninety percent of needs were met. Every hunger was satisfied. Every thirst was quenched. This place was never of wont. Generally, it was kind of a metropolitan dining area, too; there was constantly an influx of out-of-towners. Everyone from streams far and wide seemed to know that the best waters were around Sam. Fish swam many leagues under the sea to this utopia. It was a charmed childhood of indulgence.

Yet, the Lake was not named Turpentine without a reason. Sewage waste disposal men, from the local furniture factory, had secretly begun emptying industrial residues into the lake's clear waters. As the acidity rose, the brown color increasingly replaced the green. The scenery and flavors subtly changed.

It was a hard decision for a young snail, but Sam knew, as he came of age, that there was probably more to see than Lake Turpentine. On his third birthday, he left with some small vegetation tucked away in his stomach and did not look back. Perhaps it was for the best that he did not reminisce. Had he stayed but a few days longer, he would have seen many a fish go belly up.

While the lake lay in turmoil, Sam instead had gone up the valley, past many a potential mud slide, into the depths of the marshes and over the rims of the farthest corner he had ever known. Sam had travelled outside the Lake, daring to go where none like him had ever gone before.

As he discovered, the world is a wonderful place. As beautiful as it can be to swim in the depths of the local sea, there is nothing like nature in the dazzling sunlight.

Sam was meant to be an explorer. He was an amphibious land rover, moving from sea to land and land to sea. There happened to be a forest on the edge of the water. Trees with tall long stems, at least three feet in height or more, soared above the smallest of creatures, covering them in shade. The earth was moist and the soil crumbled beneath Sam's step. Birds chirped in tones and melodies aloud in symphony, more glorious than the muted sounds of fish murmuring under waves. Golden light streamed from all angles and warmed Sam's cold body. He felt tingling sensations. He learned the pleasures of the earth.

As Sam crept along the mossy bed, into this tropical jungle, the indigenous creatures turned to stare. Few had ever imagined a snail. Of those that had, none had ever seen one travel so far past the Lake. A few birds actually stopped in mid-crowing to gawk, getting out of sync with the harmony of the flock. Witnessing the stranger approach, there were some furry creatures, who not wanting trouble quickly scurried away with their tails tucked firmly between their legs. Meanwhile, Sam began to crawl into drier earth, the like of which he had never travelled before. The soil was neither soft nor moist. The sands prickled his bottom in an unpleasant, rough sort of way. He made a face as he tried to squirm and wiggle up the side of a large pebble.

Caitlin, a small green worm-like character, beheld the strange yellow shell, rubbing itself against the grains of the large brown stone. Unlike the other creatures, she felt it was her civic duty to aid this poor destitute wanderer, as odd as he might appear. She swallowed a little spit and crawled a little closer, just enough to be within shouting distance from him.

Sam heard a small squeaking sound. It was extremely high pitched and sounded quite frantic.

"Crawl around it. Just wiggle your body sideways," a bright neon worm yelled as it exaggeratedly moved its body back and forth like it was having some kind of seizure from a distance.

Sam paused his jerking motions and stood quiet, as he slid back down the rock which he had half-crawled up.

The voice got louder and spoke slower, enunciating every syllable. "WI-GG-LE LIKE THIS."

Sam furrowed his brow. He responded very slowly in return "THA-NK YOU, MY SEA-WEE-D COL-OR-ED FRIEND."

Caitlin stopped dancing and made her own face. The seaweed friend zoomed really close to Sam with surprising speed, considering the fact that she had tiny miniature legs and began to shout.

"Excuse me?! Who are you calling Seaweed, Sunshine???" She shouted angrily, almost in a growl.

Sam retreated into his shell a little. He thought his shell was a nice color. He also thought seaweed was a compliment, but land dwellers didn't seem to echo the sentiment. A little bit of the rock he had been crawling on crumbled and fell on his head, as he backtracked. His frightened face turned into a sad one.

Caitlin started laughing heartily. "Don't let me frighten you." She kept laughing until Sam started to look annoyed. Her face turned apologetic. "I'm Caitlin. You clearly have just never seen the outside of a lake. Do you have a name?" That is how Sam and Caitlin became friends.

Over the next days, Caitlin began to show Sam the ropes of the jungle. She showed him how to crawl up a tree.

"You just have to suck onto the sides and go slow," she inched her way up an old bark, demonstrating. It took Sam a couple tries before he could quite get the hang of it. He didn't exactly have feet for getting a good grip. Most of the time, he ended up sliding downward and landing on his bottom.

From his diligent efforts, Sam learned a valuable lesson: gravity might try to pull you down, but you don't have to let it. You would probably end up bruised in the rear end in your multiple attempts to defy it. However, you might be rewarded if you eventually succeeded.

Sam eventually made it up to the tops of the trees. At the tops of the tree were some of the most delicious leaves you could imagine. Juicy and succulent green leaves swayed in the breeze. Sprinkled, here and there, were the most fragrant of flowers with the most tender of aromas. No wonder birds who had access to both grass and tree chose to live here!

In general, food was plentiful and more flavorful than in the pond. Everywhere there were brightly colored assortments of flora and fauna for the nibbling. Pink, red, purple, green, blue, and yellow! It was hard to imagine something like this existed without having seen it firsthand. The rainbow buffet outshined the blue and green-grays of murky lake water.

In his daily scenic food tour, Sam could barely contain himself. He wiggled and squirmed and realized that the more of this nutritious stuff he ate the less sluggish he became. There was a little bounce to his walk and jazz to his slither. Caitlin danced along beside him. She was speedy, but Sam was becoming speedier. The healthy diet had started to affect his energy levels.

As they travelled together and as the days passed by, Sam started to grow affectionate towards Caitlin. She was a beautiful green worm with tiny thin legs that scurried about. Her neon green became a soft warming glow in Sam's eyes. They started talking about their lives and experiences. Like Sam, Caitlin had never travelled far outside of her natural habitat. There was plenty of food to eat, sights to see, and trees to climb in this forest. No creature really ventured out, except the winged ones.

One day, Sam asked about the winged ones. Caitlin shuddered. She was actually in the middle of chewing a small bit of grass and ended up sort of choking. Sam gently patted her on the back with his tail.

"Thank you, Sam." She paused a moment to catch her breath. "See that over there?" Caitlin pointed to a small feathery object a few feet in the distance.

Sam nodded. It was a long brown stem with hair-like extensions. Indeed on further inspection, it was a feather and perhaps the quill of a once proud bird.

"It belongs to the one man calls Eagle," she said her voice trailing off.

Sam furrowed his brow. He must have looked as confused as he felt. Sam didn't know what man or Eagle was, but he could sense these things were of great perplexity, at least to this forest.

Caitlin could tell he didn't understand, so she tried to explain it to him. The worm went to grab some more grass. She bit some off and started chewing slowly. It was almost like she was buying time to think of how to tell her story, the correct way.

"Man is this animal," Caitlin said as she chewed and looked around for an object to compare him to. She finally spotted a tree tall enough to use as an example. It was a giant oak tree that towered over the three foot monsters.

"Man is like a tree without bark. He is thin and lean, but sometimes much bigger. He sometimes comes in different shapes and sizes. Sometimes he is wide. Sometimes he is narrow."

Caitlin puffed herself up. It was impressive. She almost doubled her vertical size just by inhaling a lot more air. After this, she climbed up backwards so that she was standing upright on only two of her hind legs. She stood erect and then bowed down.

"There are stories of him. Some call him a God. Sometimes he calls himself a God. He brings changes to the forest," she said with emphasis on the word changes. Sam couldn't help but feel changes might be a euphemism. The way she put it, it didn't sound like changes were always good.

"Eagle is a creature that flies. Man named him. He flies and flew for man. Man even has him on his money, this thing he trades most often."

She looked upwards into the sky. It was starting to get a little overcast. The puffy white cloudy overhead started rolling away. Grey front moved in. The sunshine even started to dim.

All this pausing was starting to make Sam a little antsy. He wanted to know the conclusion of this story, so he could continue to eat before it got dark. "What happened to the bird, Eagle? I have seen many birds."

Caitlin interrupted, "not like Eagle. Just look at the feather. It was meant for great things. It is long, tall and proud. It is not the feather of a lesser beast. He's not like owls that hoot ridiculously through the night or immature pigeons with their dive aerial droppings. These other birds mostly stay local in their lifetime. Eagle with his long slender feathers flew higher and mightier into the sky than any winged creature before him. He could spread his wings to block the sun."

Snail looked towards the shinning sun and then the brown feather with new awe. The worm sighed, as if generating admiration was not the impression she wanted to make. "He was proud to the point of arrogance. It cost him, his sons, and his grandsons dearly. It cost even the forest. We are lucky to even have a feather from him."

A gust of wind blew. It had begun to get chilly. Sam suddenly no longer felt hungry and kind of wanted to hear more. Sam wasn't sure if Caitlin was just cold and that was why she stopped telling her story, or if it was the wind. The worm crawled back to the floor and started heading towards the tree hole. Sam followed her back. On second thought, the generational tale of doom seemed a bit severe and scary. The rain began to pour.