Only a Child

Lilac-Breasted Roller

Donnie looked at her with a bewildered face. Leo spoke up with curiosity perked in his voice.

"Who's 'mama?'"

Mashell only stared at him as if she never knew english. She looked over Donnie's shoulder to the turtle poster that showed the circulatory system.

"Mama," she repeated.

Donnie stood up from the swirly chair and held Mashell in his arms. He pointed towards the poster and asked:"Is that your mama?" Mashell shook her head then pointed towards the human poster. "Mama."

Donnie was aloss for words. "I-I don't understand."

"Who's her mom?" Leo asked.

"That's what I'm trying to figure out. She said the turtle was her mom, then she said the person was her mom."

Raph leaned against the steel table with his usual face."What if her mom was a mutant turtle?"

Mashell let out a peculiar noise that didn't sound quite normal for a little girl. She started to flap her arms up and down in a rapid motion and wouldn't stop with the noises.

"Your mom's a...Bird?" Raph asked puzzled.

Mashell shook her head and leaped out of Donnie's arms onto the chair. She kept pointing towards the computer screen with a pleading look. Donnie finally set her on hs lap and searched for different bird pictures. Every time he pointed to each one and asked her about it, she would just shake her head no.

"This is hopeless,'' Raph growled," we spent to long looking for one bird! Why does it even matter?"

"It matters to her, Raph," Leo scolded, "How would you feel if you were searching for our mom and to never find her?"

Raph glared daggers at his older brother."I don't search for our mom. She's probably off in the woods somewhere else in the country."

"Raph," Leo was about to lecture Raphael until Mashell squealed when they stopped at a picture. "That one?" Donnie clicked on the picture to show it was named the Lilac-Breasted Roller.

"Woah," Mikey said breathlessly,"it's beautiful."

"Mama," Mashell placed the palm of her hand on the screen and let out another noise they coudn't understand.