This is part two of the story I began last week. You can find Part one here.
“See when I was a boy not much older than you I found one of these guys, he was a little bigger than the one we just saw now and he was hurt” He looked over at his grandson and smiled ”Don’t worry he got better, I named him Bob”
John giggled his hands quickly going up to cover his mouth he didn’t want to upset his Grandpa by laughing at him.
”Aww I know it’s a bit of a silly name for a sea monster” Grandpa Shook his head with a little grin of his own “He knew it was his name though, by the time he left the cove.”
Grandpa took a long draw on his pipe staring out across the water “When I first saw Bob I was 12 years old and I was mad about something so I’d stormed on down to my thinking spot, you know the one with the big flat rock sticking out over the water and the blackberry bushes all around “Johns eyes grew wide and his mouth dropped open. Grandpa’s smile grew even wider around the stem of his pipe.
”Oh I know you sit there when you’re mad at your mom, but don’t think you’re the first to do it, I did it and I seem to recall your mother finding that spot when she was young too. Although she tended to sit and brood because she was mad at me not at your Grandma.”
“See you and I are two of a kind my boy, we see something like these animals and all we want to do is learn all about them. Your mom though seems to think the idea of these big creatures in the same waters we swim and fish in is just a little bit scary so she just wants to pretend they aren’t here.”
“I spent a lot of time studying them after Bob, I wanted to find out what they do and why so few people see them and I really did learn a lot, you’ll see I’ve still got all my notebooks.”
Grandpa shook his head with a sigh and stopped speaking lost in thought for a moment “I think that’s really why your Mom doesn’t like them.”
John watched intently hardly able to stay quiet as he waited for Grandpa to continue. When he did it wasn’t in the direction John had been hoping for.
“I hope you never see war my boy. When I first came home after the 4 years I spent in the service I was so tired of seeing the things that people can do to one another that I wanted absolutely nothing to do with other people ever again, not even my own daughter. So when I came home I went back to work out on the water and when I wasn’t working I was still on the water trying to find more creatures like Bob and learn about them.”
Grandpa looked back towards the house where lights were flickering into life. “I barely got to know her, your mom, she was just a baby when I left for the war, a girl when I came back and a young woman before I realized she needed me more than I needed to be out there on the water trying to learn about these creatures.”
“It was a little late by then.” Grandpa cleared his throat and knocked his pipe against the sole of his shoe the remaining ash falling onto the ground “Help your Grandpa up John, we should be heading back up”
“What about Bob?” John burst out surprised by the sudden shift and abrupt end in the conversation he wanted to know everything Grandpa knew about the creatures and he hadn’t even started telling him anything yet.
“Oh I’ll tell you all about him don’t you worry, this cold ground is just seeping into my bottom and besides if we’re late for dinner your Mom’s not going to be very happy with us.”Grandpa grimaced as John helped pull him to his feet “You can come back down to my workshop for a little while after dinner and we’ll get a start on the story ok.”
John nodded not quite able to squelch the feeling of disappointment he didn’t want to wait before he could hear the story his Grandpa had to tell.
