Tricia stretched her long, wrinkly neck toward the warm sun. Stretch, stretch, stretch! She stood on her very tiptoes. Tricia was a small turtle with a bright, shiny green shell. She lived in a beautiful garden right next to a big red barn. The garden was full of yummy clover and yellow dandelions.
But Tricia was not looking at the flowers. She was looking up at the blue sky.
*Whoosh!*
A blue jay zoomed over her head. He was flying very fast. In his beak, he carried a white envelope. Then, a robin flew by. *Zoom!* The robin carried a blue postcard. Tricia sighed a big, long sigh. Her tummy felt a little heavy. She wanted to be a mail carrier bird. She wanted to zoom through the clouds and deliver happy letters to all the animals on the farm.
"I want to help," Tricia whispered to a ladybug on a leaf. "I want to bring mail to my friends."
Tricia tried to practice. She imagined she had wings. She wiggled her front legs. Flap, flap, flap? No, her legs were heavy. She tried to run fast like the wind. She pushed off with her back feet. *Plod, plod, plod*. She did not zoom. She moved slower than a melting ice cream cone.
Just then, a tiny shadow fell over her. A small sparrow landed on the fence post. It was Pip. Pip was young and very bouncy.
"Hello, Tricia!" Pip chirped. *Boing, boing*. He hopped on the wood. "Why are you flapping your legs in the mud?"
"I want to be a mail carrier," Tricia said bravely. "I want to deliver important things."
Pip tilted his head. "But Tricia, you are a turtle. Mail carriers have to be fast. We have to fly high! Watch me!"
Pip grabbed a dry leaf in his beak.
