Turtle in Paradise Chapter 7 Summary

Terry and Pat

  • Early the next morning, Turtle makes her way over to the docks. She's excited to have a job, sure, but she's more excited by the fact that Beans was annoyed by the fact that Slow Poke hired her instead of him. Take that, Slow Poke. 
  • She gets to The Lost Love, Slow Poke's boat, and he asks her if she knows how to swim. Yep. 
  • They get on the boat with Ollie and start sailing around. Slow Poke has a big straw hat to keep the sun out, and he gives it to Turtle to use once it gets hot. 
  • It's too big on her, but she appreciates it; her mom warned her Key West was hot, but this is way hotter than she imagined. 
  • Slow Poke asks how her mom's doing, and she explains where she's working and all that. 
  • Turtle doesn't really want to talk about her mom so much as she does about pirates, though. She wonders if they be attacked soon.
  • Slow Poke thinks this is funny, especially because there are no pirates or gold or anything of the sort in these parts. 
  • He also laughs when Turtle suggests they sail to China instead. 
  • The crew keeps looking for sponges to sell. Ollie tosses the anchor overboard and Slow Poke gets the sponges into a bucket so he can sell them back on land. 
  • Turtle wants to try, so she leans over the boat and works at one. Whoops—before she knows it, she's fallen overboard and underwater. She really can't swim, though, and only said she could earlier so that Slow Poke would let her on the boat. 
  • He grabs her and pulls her back on, and then gently scolds her for lying to him. 
  • They start sailing home and stop at an island with a shack on it. Slow Poke wants to check the cistern and shows Turtle where the pirates used to stick their traitors. Just kidding… he's just pulling her leg. 
  • She figures it out and they have a big laugh. Slow Poke tells her that everyone looks for Black Caesar's treasure around there. 
  • He was a ruthless pirate who buried his treasure in the Keys, but no one's ever found it. 
  • Turtle asks Slow Poke why he's named that, and he explains that everyone in the Keys has a nickname, and he's always taken his time doing stuff. 
  • Then he pays Turtle and she heads home.