Ms. Melinda had just finished reading the colorful book on different types of animals to her first-grade class, when Harry raised his hand. She pointed at the child.
“Ms. Melinda,” he said, “do turtles have tails?”
The teacher thought about this for a moment and said, “Yes, I believe so. There might be some exceptions, but I believe that turtles and tortoises have tails.”
Harry raised his hand again, but did not wait to be called on. “How come?” he asked.
“What do you mean ‘how come?’”
“Well, like, I was watching this show with my dad and it said that some monkeys have tails that can help them climb trees and grab stuff. Then this other show I saw said that lots of animals have tails for balance or to help them swim like an udder.”
“I think you mean rudder.”
“Yeah. We used to have tails as people, but we didn’t need them anymore so we stopped having tails and most things’ll stop having tails when they don’t need them anymore. Well, how would a tail help a turtle?”
“Maybe swimming, Harry.”
“Well, then how would it help a tortoise?”
“I’ll tell you what. I’ll look it up when we’re at lunch, and then I’ll let you know.”
Ms. Melinda lined the kids up and walked them to the cafeteria. She went to the teacher’s lounge, took her phone out and searched “why do turtles have tails?”
“Oof,” Ms. Melinda said, “maybe Harry won’t remember to follow up.”