The Turtle.

I cant remember which night it was (which makes me a bit sad.) But i do remember it was the night of the eclipse.
We had driven for so long to a beach in Toco. I was in the front with my aunt, actually spending time with her. We fell asleep on each other and i kept waking up because the road was so bumpy. Her husband was driving and in the back, 9 others. We arrived at around Midnight. I remember standing around waiting, and looking straight up to see the moon. And i remember being really shocked that it wasn't a crescent moon like during the eclipse but was now a full moon.
(The eclipse was the scariest most beautiful thing I've ever seen. The shadow on the moon made it look like it was so close to us.)
We then started walking to the beach. The moon was so bright we could see without torches. We had been there a few hours earlier, so now we could see the huge lumps on the sand.
Even though i knew it was there, i still jumped when i saw the turtle. It was huge and it looked like someone had placed a large piece of shiny dark armour on the ground. The turtle hadn't moved yet and then it's back legs kicked up some sand.
We had a guide who told us that she'd dig until the hole underneath was 3 foot deep or when she couldn't dig anymore. We watched for about 10 minutes while the guide told us about her.
Leather backs can grow to about 8 foot, and the largest they've had in Trinidad that they recorded was 13. My aunt said, "No one knows how old a turtle is...except the turtle" and the guide laughed. I felt quite afraid but excited at the same time.
My cousins and I mostly stood in silence just walking to each other and leaning on one another.
Then the guide told us that when she was ready she would start going into a trance. I asked if she was nervous because we were standing around her, he didn't really answer me.
Then she went really still. He lifted up one of her legs which was covering the hole and shone his light on the eggs she had already laid. It was nice to see them, but i felt sick thinking that her legs were probably there to protect the eggs, and how he just lifted them up without permission (sounds stupid, but I'm sure she cared)
He told us that while she was in a trance we could touch her and feel what she feels like. He said it twice before her trance and i thought he said "you can feel what shes feeling," which was weird.
Some of us knelt around her to touch her skin. Her head was just like the shell on her back, but her neck was kind of soft, but strong at the same time. I just kept stroking a part on her...fin? because it felt really delicate. Throughout she kept lifting her head up and we would hear her breathing loudly.
I remember being next to an aunt at the time, and telling her that i felt really emotional, and she didn't even have to say anything.
Mathew and I named the turtle Emelda.
It was quite sad to see her cover up her eggs and then walk off down to the sea.
All i could think of was how violent the sea was that day, and the scars my brother and I had gotten from the waves and the rocks. And how she was by herself. But I guess they're made to be that way.