Prompt-A mythical creature appears.
“I saw it, Grandpa Come quick I saw it” John yelled racing through the open doorway.
“Saw what? Not just anything gets these old bones up anymore you know”
“The lake monster, I did, but it wasn’t a big one today. He was little like me, maybe the big one is his grandpa, but he had flippers on his feet and a big fat body and he was kind of grey looking but he was more purple than the big one. Maybe he’s a baby like Jake. ” John was pulling insistently on his grandpa’s shirt sleeve”you have to come see”
“All right I’ll come down with you, don’t get your diapers in a bunch”
“Grandpa I don’t wear diaper just Jake does” John retorted a look of disgust on his face”and he makes them smelly”
Grandpa pulled his old wool coat on with a chuckle and picked a battered and well used pipe from a pocket as John danced around clearly impatient. John knew he would come, Grandpa always did but sometimes it seemed to take forever waiting for him to fill and light his pipe.
Normally John waited patiently but today he couldn’t help but sigh as he watched the first match flare to life and sputter out.”My we are in a hurry today, but not to worry we’ll get going in our own time” The second match did its job and Grandpa finally led the way out of the woodshop and started down the stony path to the lakes edge.
John jumped along from stone to stone circling back whenever he got too far ahead. The scent of Grandpas pipe on the wind gave John a nice warm feeling inside. Grandpa would never tell him to stop being silly he always believed John that the lake monster was nearby even though it was always gone by the time they made it back down to the lakes edge.
“By the dock Grandpa down here” John called excitedly pointing at something along the shore “see look he waited for us”
Grandpa had stopped a few steps further up staring at the creature sitting half in and half out of the water his pipe forgotten grasped in the crook between thumb and forefinger “My word, just like I remember”
“You remember?”John asked watching as his Grandpa bent down and held his hand towards the animal sitting in the water. The creature stretched its long neck towards Grandpas hand and gave it a tentative sniff before a high pitched noise echoed across the lake and it turned and splashed away.
In the distance they watched as two more, much larger creatures appeared. They floated in the water waiting for the little one to join them. When the little one reached them it and one of the bigger ones disappeared back under the water while the third floated looking at the old man on the water’s edge. The high pitched sound echoed over the water once again before it too sank out of sight.
“Your Mom never wanted me to tell you, she was very mad when you started seeing them, thought I’d gone against her you see.”Grandpa slowly sat down in the long grass pulling a book of matches from his coat.”Wasn’t sure if you had really seen ’em till now so I kept my mouth shut” He puffed on the pipe until it was once again burning to his satisfaction.”Guess I could tell you now, you really do know about them anyway, just don’t tell your mother I did” John settled down next to Grandpa on the grass nodding solemnly.
“See when I was a boy not much older than you I found one of these guys, he was a little bigger than the little guy we just saw now and he was hurt…….”
