Thank you to Teratophelia for the beautiful artwork! art/Family-312855449
"My sons, how would you like to take a walk to the park after we are finished eating?" Splinter asked his turtles as they munched away on their scraps of bagels, donuts, and bits of almost too old fruit that he had collected for them behind a nearby cafe.
"Yeah!" came the unanimous cry.
"Ungm mrrgh guhma pfft-"
"Mikey!" Splinter began to reprimand, "Please chew and swallow your food first." He remembered to put extra emphasis on the word chew in order to avoid a repeat of last week's overly exciting episode.
"Fthawrray", Mikey managed through his mouthful before continuing to masticate his last bit of crunchy poppy-seed bagel with furious vigor.
"Very well," Splinter continued, "we will leave as soon as you all finish up what is on your plate."
At that all four turtles made haste to inhale their last crumbs as quickly as they could.
"Done!" came the cry from Raph as he held up his plate so that the others could admire it's vacuous glory. This prompted the remaining three to double their efforts, with Leo coming up next, followed by Mikey. This left the three finished turtles chanting, "Go Go Go Go!" to the slowest eater of the group, Donny. At last, Donny stuffed the last wrinkly grape into his mouth as the four of them jumped up and out of their seats in joy.
"Everybody ready?" Splinter asked as he rose from his seated position.
"Yeah!" all four shouted at once.
"So, who can guess what game we're going to play on the way to the park?"
Leo reached out to grab Splinter's robe, "Simon Says Simon Says!" he declared.
"While that is a good suggestion, I have another game in mind".
"Ooh ooh ooh! Tag!" Raph shouted while hopping up and down.
"I spy!" Mikey shouted, grabbing onto Raph's shoulder as he began to hop up and down with him.
"While these are all good games, it's not quite the game I had in mind. Anymore guesses? Donny?"
Donny stared down at his feet, his little hands making grasping motions. Finally he looked up at Splinter. "Silent Turtle", he said.
"That's right, Donny. We're going to play Silent Turtle. On our way to and from the park, the turtle with the least Noise Points gets to pick what we watch on TV tonight.
And with that, the little group began to make their way through the sewers. By the time they reach their destination, Leo was ahead with one point, Raph right behind with two points, and Donny had accumulated four points, while Mikey was trailing behind with a whopping eight points. They finally reach the end of a tunnel, a stream of light shining down to illuminate a pile of trash that had been washed down from the playground right above their heads.
The four turtles looked up at Splinter, who nodded his head indicating that the game of Silent Turtle was now on pause until the walk back to their lair. The four of them cried out in joy at being able to talk and laugh again. Their laughter and shouts were drowned out by the noise of human children playing in the park above ground. The four of them began to sift through the garbage pile hoping to find something fun to play with.
Donny was the first to fish out a small piece of chalk from the trash heap. "Look Leo!" he called out as he used his already muddy fingers to brush dirt off of the little blue writing utensil. "Let's play Tic-Tac-Toe!"
"Okay!" Leo said as he and Donny settled onto a dirty blanket to cushion the hard, wet metal of the sewer floor.
Mikey and Raph continued to pick through the pile of wet trash looking for more toys. Both of them let out a little gasp as their eyes landed on a pink little pony with a worn out ice cream cone on it's rear.
"Lookit!" Raph said as Mikey reached out to tug it out of the grimy pile, just of Raph went to grab it as well. But Mikey snatched it up, already tugging leaves and twigs out of the pony's blue and pink hair.
"Hey!" Raph called out. "No fair! I saw it first!"
"Naw-aw! I saw it first!" Mikey replied, hugging the pony close to his plastron as he turned away from Raph, his blue eyes glaring in challenge at Raph.
"No you didn't!" Raph said right before reaching out and ripping the pony from Mikey's grasp.
"Give it! I wanna play wit it!" Mikey shrieked as he tugged the pony out of Raph's hands. Raph grabbed the pony's mane and pulled it right out of Mikey's hand's again.
"NO! I saw it FIRST!" Raph yelled as he reaches out with his empty hand to shove Mikey away from him and his equestrian treasure. Mikey stumbled a bit, but reached out to whack Raph in the face with his open hand.
At this point Leo and Donny had looked up from their peaceful game of Tic-Tac-Toe to watch their siblings struggle for control over the funny looking pink pony. Leo's little face scrunched up into a frown as he tried to decide whether or not to help his brothers with their dilemma of who gets to use the toy first.
"Ow!" Raph cried before reaching out to hit Mikey in the face... with the pony... hooves first.
Mikey was taken aback by the sharp pony kick to the face. Splinter, who had been in the corner watching the scene before him unfold, was trying to let his turtles resolve their issue on their own. But seeing Mikey's face crumpling up as his turtles have now resorted to physical violence over the strange, vanilla scented horse, he realized he was going to have to intervene in their squabble. Mikey's tantrums can be a bit overblown, and even with the noise of the human children playing above, he worried that Mikey's cries would be loud enough to draw attention to them.
"Boys..." he began, but was interrupted by the squeaky voice of a human child.
All five of them stopped what they were doing to glance up at the sewer grating and were greeted by the shrieks of what appeared to be a two or three year old human child looking right back at them.
"Mira*!" The human child cried out. (*Look!)
Splinter was just about to gather up his turtles when the human child was suddenly yanked from the sewer grate by a furious adult human.
"What are you doing here?! I tol' you ta stay where I can see you! Fuck, why you gotta be so dumb! Come here, and stop squirming..."
Splinter and the turtles were frozen, watching the scene unfold before them. The child was being dragged away by an angry young woman clad in a tiny mini skirt and a low cut blouse, her face caked in make up with eyebrows desperate to reach to heavens, and large hoop earrings with a circumference as large as her own neck. The woman appeared to be very young herself, and had the familiar bump on her belly that suggested the little boy would be expecting a baby brother or sister within the next few months.
Splinter and the turtles watched as a small square slipped out of the young mother's hands and crashed to the ground, little pieces breaking off on impact with the cement ground.
"Oh SHIT! My phone! My fuckin' phone!" The young mother shrieked before squatting down to pick up the remnants of her pink, jeweled cell phone. As she reached for her phone, her tiny skirt rode up to her hips, causing her to have to tug it back down once she got back up to a standing position.
"Oh my GOD!" she screamed, "Look at this, Angel!" the mother fumed as she grabbed the little boy's cheeks, squeezing hard, making the boy's face look like a brown gold fish while she waved the shattered phone in his already tear-drenched face. "Look at this, this is all your fault!" With that she let go of his bruised cheeks and smacked the little child across the face. "Fuck, you are soooo fuckin' mongolico*, I swear to God! Mami...!" she called out as she dragged the sobbing child away from the sewer grate where Splinter and the turtles watched in horror and over to another older woman. "Llevate este jodio nene!"**(*mongoloid)(**Take this damn child!)
Off in the distance, an older woman appeared to scold the young mother, taking the child into her arms while the young woman ignored her, reaching into her purse and fishing out a pack of cigarettes.
By now the strange family had moved on, too far for the turtles or Splinter to continue listening in on their exchange. The four turtles ripped their gaze away from the scene and turned to Splinter.
"Daddy..." Leo began before his little throat clenches up, cutting him short.
Raph was staring at the ground, his little hands still holding the pink pony by it's tail. Mikey was sniffling, tears streaming down his face.
Donny turned and hugged Leo, his face looking up at Splinter. "Why did she hit the little boy, Daddy?" Now all four turtles were looking up at Splinter, waiting for an answer. "Who was that?"
"Was that his mommy?" Raph asked as well.
Splinter found himself at a loss. He tried to gather his thoughts on how to properly explain what just happened to his four, very young, very naive sons. "Michelangelo", he began, startling the little turtle out of his sobs, "Why did you hit your brother?"
Mikey was surprised to hear Splinter change the topic so suddenly. He hung his head, not quite sure how to answer his father's question.
"Well?" Splinter urged.
Mikey finally lifted his head up and looked at Raph. Raph was looking right back at him before finally looking away. Mikey looked back at Splinter who was waiting patiently for an answer.
"I... I dunno, I guess I was mad cuz I wanted to play with the pony."
"Mad enough to strike your brother?" Splinter went on.
"No, I mean, yeah, I mean, I dunno. I don't know why." Mikey turned to Raph who was staring at the pony in his hands.
"We are a family. We only have each other in this life. It is important that we show each other the love and respect that we each deserve. I am disappointed that you would strike your own flesh and blood over a piece of plastic. Haven't I taught you better than that?"
Mikey slowly nodded his head in affirmation. He was still looking at Raph. Raph was still looking at the pony in his hands.
"My sons, you do know that I love you very, very much, right?"
"Yes Daddy," they all replied in unison.
"And you all know that when you love someone, you do your best to protect them and look after their well being, not the opposite".
Mikey brought a hand up to Raph's shoulder, "I'm sorry I hit you Raphie".
Raph finally looked up to meet Mikey's eyes. "I..." he began, but paused to turn around and throw the pink pony as far out into the sewers as his little muscles would allow it. Then he turned back to Mikey. "I'm sorry I hit you too." With that he wrapped his little arms around Mikey in a big hug, as Mikey hugged back just as hard.
Leo and Donny went over to hug Splinter as they watched Mikey and Raph hug and whisper apologies and words of love into each others ears.
Splinter placed a hand on Leo and Donny's shoulders. "Family means love. Family means tolerance. Family means you listen, think, and act with your heart. If you only have each other, and yet are willing to harm each other, what will that mean for your future?"
Suddenly Mikey's eyes light up. "Lookit!" he said as he pulled away from Raph, dried tears cracking on his cheeks as he ran back to the garbage pile and pulled out a soft, red and yellow Nerf football. "Raph! Go long!" he called out before tossing the ball to Raph.
Raph perked up and ran off to catch the ball at the other end of the tunnel. Splinter gave Leo and Donny an extra squeeze before the two turtles walked back to their dirty blanket to continue their game of Tic-Tac-Toe.
Fin