
When we lived in Egypt my parents bought us three tortoises and named them after the pyramids: Keops, Kefren, and Mykerinos.
There is a famous home video my Dad took of my sister and I and in it, he asks us what the names of the turtles are. My sister easily recites the names “Keops! Kefren and Mykerinos!”
I was picking my nose in the corner or something and my dad interrupts me and says, “Kimberly – what are their names?”
“uhhm…… keops, kefren and… my carpet.”
This became a big inside joke in our family for years.
We had those turtles for a while until one day we had friends from Canada visiting and one of the boys, who was about 13, accidentally stepped on a turtle and it broke like a plate and bled everywhere. Those things are sacks of blood. It was terrifying because I didn’t know what had happened but I heard crying (the boy felt terrible) and everyone running around like maniacs trying to keep my sister and I from seeing our family pet bleed to the death.