The Turkey That Got Away
Tim the turkey was terribly terrified. Thanksgiving had passed but that’s not what he was so worried about. It was December and Christmas was two weeks away and he still had to hide somewhere in the forest; the deep dense forest that was favored by hunters. “Where should I hide this year?”, Tim thought to himself. “Should I hide in the garden? No, no, no, no”, he thought “I hid there last year. What about the old tree? Hmm, come to think of it I hid there 2 years ago.” While Tim was mulling over where to hide he heard a loud BOOM! Subsequently a herd of deer ran by. Tim could hear them say “The hunters are in the woods!” amongst themselves.
“Oh no! The hunting season has begun, I must hide quickly”, Tim said out loud. “ I guess I’ll hide in the old shed.” While Tim was rushing into the old shed he heard a shout and footsteps coming toward the old shed. Suddenly the door flew open! “Okay I’ll be out in a few I just have to get some more ammunition Bill!”
“What could they be saying?”, thought Tim. As the man shuffled through the junk in the shed to find more ammunition Tim shrunk into his hiding place between a rusty old lawnmower and some large boxes of tools. After what seemed like an eternity the man left the shed and went back into the woods. “Wow what a relief! I thought for sure they would find me!” and with that Tim figured he would walk outside and get a breath of fresh air before he had to go into hiding for the next 4 weeks. As he was going on his walk he saw a worried mother turkey and her fledglings scuttling through the forest.
“What could be the trouble?” Tim asked.
“I’m looking for a place to hide my fledglings and I” said the mother with a shaky voice.
Seeing their distress, Tim offered to let them hid in the shed with him. He figured that there could be room for three more turkeys. As they were walking back Tim introduced himself.
“So my name is Tim, what’s yours?
“I’m Angela and this is Tony and Melanie.”
“I believe there is room for the four of us at the old shed” said Tim “So you can stay with me this hunting season.”
“Oh thank you so much I can sleep with peace tonight knowing that my fledglings will be safe!”
And so Tim, Angela, and her two fledglings, Tony and Melanie, walked to the old shed and made themselves comfortable. Although shy at first, the babies quickly made themselves at home by playing with the old tools and the worn out soccerball. Tony quickly caught on how to play soccer and taught the others too. They liked to investigate the rickety old shed. By the first week they had already looked at every nook and cranny in the place. Some of those rainy days the kids pestered him but he did not mind because he was very lonely deep down inside his heart. One day the turkeys decided to get out of the shed to stretch their legs. They played what the youngsters called ‘soccer’. Tim thought that the game was quite fun but also a bit confusing. When the game was done they went back into the shed before they were spotted by humans.
One night it was exceptionally cold. The shed was an ice machine. Tim had thoughts about the fledglings in this cold weather but he pushed them out of his mind. Just the thought of losing one of the children would be like tearing a hole in his heart. One night Tim rudley awoke to a shrill scrapping. He had two first reactions to this cacophony. The first one was “What is this infernal noise?” The second thought was, “What if the dreaded thought has come to life?!” Tim ran to see Tony, Melanie, and Angela fast asleep and the noise was only a branch on the window.
“Oh what a relief” he quickly said out loud.Then, just as quickly, he covered his mouth as not to awake the others. Slowly he fell back to sleep. The next day he awoke to a blissful laughter. Tim opened his eyes and saw the fledglings kicking around a soccer ball. Little did Angela and Tim know but this would be one of the last times that they would see Tony and Melanie playing soccer like there was no care in the world.
It was an exceptionally cold day when Tim heard a terrible cough. Tony was coughing very badly. The dreaded noise was like listening to fingernails on a chalkboard. Tim at once understood that the weather was too cold for little Tony. With tearful eyes Melanie looked up to her mother and asked, “Will Tony be alright?”
Then she started to sob because of her deep love for her brother. Just as she started so did Tim and Angela. Over the next week Tony progressively got better and soon was playing soccer, his most favorite sport of all. One day the group decided to go out on a little walk because they were starting to get cabin fever and thought that Melanie and Tony could use a little fresh air.
After the refreshing walk they went straight to bed because the turkeys were very tired. That night Angela was awaken by the creaking of footsteps. Angela woke the others and told them to hide. Quickly they went to their assigned hiding spots. Tim under the lawn mower, Angela in the box of tools, and Tony and Melanie hid in behind the woodpile. The footsteps were in fact a man coming to get wood for the fire. The young ones shrunk inside of themselves to avoid being seen. Luckily it worked and the man just left with his wood. This was one of many close encounters with humans that they faced. One night Melanie was taken by the humans during a soccer game outside. They got her because she was the slowest to scatter.
“Oh why did they have to take my little Melanie?”, she cried.
“Where’s my sister!”, Tony screamed.
“Oh no!”, thought Tim. Then, aloud, he said “Let’s see if we can see her in the house!”
They looked and looked in all of the windows but with no luck with finding or seeing Melanie. Finally after hours of looking they saw Melanie trapped in a cardboard box. They could hear her squawking and trying to get out.
“Oh no! my baby’s in trouble!” exclaimed Angela. Then Angela started to run towards the house but quickly Tim stopped her.
“If you do that the people might grab you as well!” Tim shouted. Unfortunately he shouted a little too loud and the humans came out to see what all of the ruckus was and unfortunately for the turkeys they were happy to see them all out there.
“Run!”, yelled Tim. Then they all started to run towards the forest because the old weather-beaten shed would do them no good now.Once the were about half of a mile from the farm they stopped and caught their breath and Tim and Angela looked for shelter. That night a blizzard set in. It snowed all night and when the three turkeys woke up they were very surprised when they saw that the whole world was covered in a white blanket.
“Great,” said Tim, “Now how are we going to save Melanie?”. Then said to stay there and he set off to find his way back to the house and somehow rescue Melanie. When Angela heard Tim’s plan to walk all the way back she was concerned.
“Now why would you do this alone? Take us with you!” She pleaded. Her eyes were like a leaky faucet and she exclaimed “Don’t go! You could die!”, and realized that it was no use because Tim was set on his mission and wasn’t turning back.
“Where’s Tim going?”, asked Tony with a hint of curiosity.
“He’s going to save your sister.” replied Angela.
Then Angela started to cry because she did not want to lose Tim or Melanie. The thought that they might not survive only made her cry harder. Suddenly the sun came out and started to slowly melt a little of the deep blanket. Meanwhile Tony tried to cheer himself up by playing soccer with an acorn and hide and seek in the snowdrifts but without a second person the game was useless. Tim had finally gotten back to the house and waited for them to bring out Melanie to the chopping stump where they chopped their wood. He waited very silently and at sunrise the man came out and brought Melanie to the block. Then, right as the axe was raised he ran out and went crazy like never before. Tim’s short notice plan worked and the man ran into the house. When he came back out Tim was gone and so was Melanie. Although they thought they had escaped the were wrong because suddenly wild gunshots came from behind them.
“Ahhh!’ screamed Melanie.
“Run faster!”, yelled Tim. They ran and ran and ran until finally the shots only were a faint echo in the distance.
“Whew, what a relief!”, exclaimed Tim.
“How are we going to find Angela and Tony?”, Melanie questioned.
“I do not know but we will find them and hopefully they haven’t moved yet.”, Tim said.

The next hour they walked and walked but with no luck of finding the others. Then, at about noon, a light flurry of snow started to set in and the temperature was dropping fast. Suddenly, out of nowhere a full-blown snow storm hit.
“I’m so c-c-cold.” stated Melanie
“I am t-t-to.” said Tim.
Even though they were freezing they still pressed on and traveled until nightfall. Tim and Melanie hid under a sturdy tree to sleep. the next day they were shocked to see three feet of snow
“Oh no!” exclaimed Tim, “This is horrible!”
“Come on we have to go now before more snow falls.” Melanie said.
“Yeah lets start out now.” Tim replied.
After that the two cold and tired turkeys walked about a half mile when they heard a faint yell in the distance.
“Tim! Melanie!”
“What was that?” questioned Tim.
The the strange yell sounded again “Tim! Melanie!”
“Tim!”, said Melanie, “That’s Angela!”
“You are right!” Tim said ecstatically. “Lets go and find them!”
With new hope they set off following Angela’s call. Tim and Melanie trudged through the cold snow when at last they found the others walking through the forest calling out their name.
“Angela! We thought we’d never find you!” Tim exclaimed.
“ Is Melanie okay?” Angela asked inquisitively.
“I’m fine.” Melanie replied.
“Are you sure?” Angela said with a worried tone.
“Yes, I’m fine.” Melanie said.
“We’ll have to find another place to stay because we can’t go back to the old rickety shed.” Tim announced.
“Well thank you captain obvious!” Tony said with a smile.
“Tony! That was rude!” said Angela.
“Sorry Tim. But lets get going now.” Tony said hastily.

The four turkeys then set off to look for a place to live far from where humans could get them. They even all stayed together because of their great friendship from that winter and were rarely apart.