“The first court in history, hereby I pronounce Mr. Turtle as the judge, who will bring peace and justice among us,” President Lion stood high and lay his right paw on Mr. Turtle’s forehead.

“Please accept our offerings, we will provide you food, so that you will never go hungry. Take this as our greatest form of trust in you, Mr. Turtle,” the Lion took his paw back and Mr. Turtle nodded.

Now Mr. Turtle faced the entire species in the jungle and was speechless at his own coronation ceremony. Silence is golden, they say. Everyone understands and believes that whatever Mr. Turtle does will always bring enlightenment.

Seven years before his coronation, Mr. Turtle’s brain was the brightest. He set up jungle management. He was one of the most influential animals in the making of the National Food Bank (NFB) for winter times or sudden crises. The NFB was Mr. Turtle’s initiative, and he had proposed it because he had seen for himself the many animals that had suffered during the long and brutal winter. He proposed that in such trying times, they needed the best hunters to collect food, which could then be contributed to the food banks.

He shared the idea with Mr. Eagle, who then shared it with Mr. Owl, the most educated member of the Animal Society. Mr. Bear was also involved in setting up the NFB, and after it was agreed by everyone that the NFB was a brilliant idea, Mr. Eagle soared to the sky and took it upon himself to share this great news to every single animal on the planet. It was understood by all in the animal kingdom that they must look out for one another no matter what.

One year later, Mr. Owl released the Food Order. Carnivores were only allowed to eat live animals who had been sentenced to death at the National Prison. These were animals that had committed grave crimes, big or small, and who would then be fed to the kingdom’s beasts. President Lion doesn’t believe in conversion programs wherein carnivores are taught to eat only vegetables. They are strong animals with great abilities, and it is these abilities that President Lion had focused on when he asked them to be his security officers. On the other hand, President Lion believes Omnivores should go on a diet. Greed is never a good thing for anyone.

The National Food Bank became the most admired institution in the kingdom. However, four years before Mr. Turtle’s coronation, the NFB discovered that some of its food had gone unaccounted for. The Principal Food Collectors, Skunk and Racoon, spotted this and calculated that each month, thirty percent of the bank’s collected food had gone missing. This was problematic, because each month the entire food collection was divided into shares: Ten percent for the officers; ninety percent for the kingdom’s residents. With thirty percent gone, they only had sixty percent of food collection left to feed everyone. And that wasn’t enough.

Soon after, a commotion ensued. The claim that there was food missing from the collection was substantially rejected by Mr. Bear, who did the bank’s calculation. Mr. Bear insisted nothing was wrong with the food stock, and that everything was accounted for. Hearing this, Skunk blamed Mr. Bear and said to his friends, “A bear cannot think well when tantalized by food.”

At some point, the words reached Mr. Bear and hurt him tremendously. After a while, he appealed to those in the General Assembly of the NFB and said, “We must set up a high court and vote Mr. Turtle by default.”

“Why Mr. Turtle?” asked the Eagle.

“You know why,” said the Bear. “He is clean and he initiated this organization.”

That is the reason for Mr. Turtle’s coronation today.

The next day, in Mr. Turtle’s first trial, the food robbery case is brought up again. Officer Giraffe leads three suspects into the courtroom: the Elephant, the Ant and the Squirrel. Without further questions, Mr. Turtle conducts his first trial and makes his decision.

“My fellow animal, Mr. Elephant the Overweight, I sentence you to death for stealing food from the food bank,” says Mr. Turtle.

“Wait, what?” Mr. Elephant rises from his resting position. “I am here as the representative of all elephants. There’s one thousand, eight hundred and seventy-two of us put together. Are you blaming us all?”

“Don’t disgrace our judge,” says Mr. Eagle.

“Why not? He called me overweight,” says Mr. Elephant.

“Oh, my fellow animal, you are overweight,” replies Mr. Eagle.

At this, every single animal in the courtroom tries to hold back their laughter — including the security officers: Mr. Eagle, Mr. Giraffe, Mr. Rhino, Mr. Crocodile. Even the Skunk and Racoon are laughing, too. This hurts Mr. Elephant.

“Our judge is indeed blind to the truth,” says Mr. Elephant.

“Oooh,” the courtroom sighs upon hearing this.

“My fellow animal, I am sorry if I have insulted you. This is my first court,” says Mr. Turtle. “I probably should explain the reason I sentenced you to death. Your food consumption is higher than that of any of us here in this courtroom, is it not?”

“It is true that I was born like this, Mr. Turtle,” says the Elephant. “I am disappointed that the size of my body is blamed for what happened. It should not be the reason I became the primary suspect in this case.”

“Alright,” says Mr. Turtle. “Should we also hear from Mr. Ant?”

“Sir,” said Mr. Ant. “I don’t know how you can blame us. Perhaps your security officers can show us our footprints coming in and out of the food storage space.”

The audience laughs.

“Well, we all know you don’t leave footprints,” says Mr. Turtle with a smile. “Why would you propose such a silly thing?”

“I’m sorry for interrupting, Sir,” says Mr. Squirrel. “Mr. Ant implied that you need evidence to put us at fault.”

“Let me explain this to the lot, Sir,” says Mr. Crocodile. He speaks with such a firm tone everyone has to listen. “Mr. Elephant, you became a suspect due to your body size, which leads to the fact that you consume more food than the rest of us in this room. Mr. Ant, you and your kind are very good at keeping food and carrying them little by little each month. Our food in the storage room decreases slowly each month. Mr. Squirrel, you have the speed and stealth to steal anything. These are the reasons the three of you have become the suspects in this case.”

The Crocodile then smiles and says, “Do you deny these things I have just mentioned?”

“You mentioned our natural abilities, Mr. Crocodile,” says Mr. Squirrel. “What we want is actual proof that we had stolen food supply from NFB’s storage space.”

Mr. Elephant chimes in: “Can we not hold you, Mr. Crocodile, accountable as well due to the fact that you bear the looks of a vicious animal?”

The smile on Mr. Crocodile’s face immediately disappears.

“And your flying ability, Mr. Eagle, may also be reason enough to accuse you of stealing our food and hiding it somewhere no one else can reach,” says Mr. Ant. “We missed thirty percent of the food supply, which is equal to what? Say, one million cabbages?”

“You can’t blame officers!” shouts Mr. Giraffe.

“And why not?” screams Mr. Elephant.

“Our dedication cannot be compared to that of a criminal,” says Mr. Giraffe righteously.

“Stop this!” says Mr. Turtle. “You are inciting anger in this courtroom, Mr. Elephant. If you blame the officers again, I will sentence you to jail time regardless of whether you’re in the wrong or not.”

Mr. Skunk leans in and says, “It was Mr. Giraffe who started the shouting match, Sir.”

“But he is an officer,” says Mr. Turtle, who is visibly upset. “Officers are not to be blamed.”

“Now, please hear me out,” says Mr. Racoon. “Mr. Skunk and I were the ones who reported this case to the officers, and they didn’t want to hear our conclusion because we are not officers. So, I’m not sure you’re in the right here, either. Because you haven’t heard the whole truth. Let me share with you what we found in its entirety, so you may judge for yourself who is at fault for the missing food supply.”

“Go ahead,” says Mr. Turtle.

“Mr. Bear, please listen to us and correct us if necessary,” says Mr. Racoon. “According to Mr. Bear’s calculation, the missing item that contributes about five percent to the missing supply is sugarcane. Elephants collect sugarcane and that is shared with the ants. But our finding did not point to sugarcane as the missing item; the stock calculation is accurate. As of March last year, the plan is to have the sugarcane stock reach as high as 10.3 billion canes. That’s what we have now.”

Mr. Racoon draws a deep breath and continues: “According to what Mr. Skunk and I discovered, here are the missing items — zucchini, six percent; shrimp prisoners, eleven percent; deer prisoners, four percent; spinach, five percent; and the rest are rats, about four percent of the total stolen supply.”

Mr. Racoon looks at Mr. Turtle: “Only eleven percent of the missing items are kept in the NFB storage room, the rest are held inside the National Prison to feed the Carnivores.”

“I almost fell asleep,” says Mr. Eagle.

“Gentlemen,” says Mr. Skunk. “We can identify the suspects based on what they eat.”

“We do not eat vegetables and we do not eat meat,” says Mr. Ant. “Thank you!”

He is about to turn his back on the courtroom when Officer Giraffe grabs one of his legs and keeps him from leaving.

“Crocodiles must have eaten those deer and rats!” says Mr. Elephant.

“And your kind must have finished off all the zucchinis and spinach!” says Mr. Crocodile, pointing at Mr. Elephants.

“What did I say earlier?” shouts Mr. Turtle. “You can’t blame the officers.” He then turns to Mr. Bear. “What do you have to say, Mr. Bear?”

“The testimony provided by Mr. Skunk is misleading, Sir,” says the Bear. “I think his and Mr. Racoon’s estimations are off, because I look after all the food that comes in and goes out of the storage room. My calculations are right.”

“Mr. Bear,” says the Ant. “You only count the food that comes in, but you have no idea how much goes missing once inside. If anyone doesn’t agree with me, let’s go to the storage room and compare our notes.” He goes on: “Ants, squirrels, racoons and skunks are the best food collectors out there. It’s a tough job. We know how much we collect and how much goes unaccounted.”

Everyone is silent. It has been brought to their attention all the missing items from the food stock, but to point fingers at who steals the food based on the eating habit of each group of animals leads to much unjustifiable speculation. Yet, Mr. Skunk and Mr. Racoon are suspicious of the officers. Most of the security officers are Carnivores; Mr. Turtle is on a diet, so he may be responsible for the missing vegetables. Mr. Ant has the same suspicions and finally musters the courage to ask.

“Why is it that officers are exempt from suspicion?” he asks.

“Because we are officers,” says Mr. Turtle without providing further explanations.

Why, this is going to be a very long session at Mr. Turtle’s first day in court.

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Putriyana Asmarani is an Indonesian author and researcher.

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We are looking for contemporary fiction between 1,500 and 2,000 words by established and new authors. Stories must be original and previously unpublished in English.

The email for submitting stories is: shortstory@thejakartapost.com

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