Abigail and the Seamonster, pt. 3

Part 1 . Part 2 . Part 3 . Part 4 . Part 5 . Part 6 . Part 7

ONE DAY, AFTER LUNCH, Abigail took a basket and went down to the lake to pick up shells. She had a collection of shells that she kept on a shelf in her room. She picked them up from the shore of the lake, and kept the ones with the prettiest colors, or the most unusual shapes. Today she was looking for green shells. She had decided that she didn't have enough green shells in her collection.

She walked up and down the shore of the lake for a long time, looking down at the ground for shells. Every so often she would look up at the lake, which was bright blue and reflected the hot sun. She thought about the man who lived in the lake, and imagined what it would be like if he walked dripping out of the water and handed her a perfect green shell. She pictured herself saying, "Thank you," the way she had been taught, and then inviting him up to the house for a snack. He and her and her mother would sit around the kitchen table drinking lemonade, and he would tell her all his stories about the bottom of the lake. When he left, he would politely shake her hand, and when he was gone she would use a towel to dry up all the water he had dripped on the floor.

While she was daydreaming about this she forgot to look up at the lake. Suddenly she heard a noise she had never heard, a sort of bubbling sound coming from the water. She looked up, and screamed.

An enormous purple thing was rising from the lake. She could have thrown a shell and hit it. It came further and further out of the lake, water running down its sides. Two huge eyes in the middle of the thing blinked at her. They were the biggest eyes she had ever seen, and they were bright blue. She realized that the bulge in the water was a head. It was long, like a dog's head, with long limp ears that hung down on either side, and a wrinkled snout. It looked right at her and blinked again. The head came all the way out of the water, and she could see a long purple neck stretching back into the lake. The head's mouth was huge, and when it grinned at her she could see all its long white teeth.

Abigail stood frozen. She was so scared she couldn't say anything, or even move. The head moved closer to her across the water. It seemed as big as a car. Suddenly it--whatever it was--jerked its ears straight up and open. The ears spread out like a ship's sails on either side of the head. It moved its mouth again, and she heard it say in a deep voice, "Hello, Abigail."

This was too much. She screamed again, dropped her basket, and ran up the hill to the house faster than she had ever run, screaming the whole way. She fell once, skinning her knees, but didn't dare look back. She was sure the Head was right behind her, ready to eat her in a single bite. She scrambled back to her feet and kept running.

Her mother met her at the back door. She had heard her daughter screaming all the way up the hill. Abigail ran right into her mother's arms without slowing down.

"Abby, what's the matter?" her mother asked.

Abigail tried to tell her, but kept on screaming instead. She couldn't make any words come out. Her mother picked her up and carried her into the kitchen, where she gave her a glass of water. Finally Abigail calmed down enough to tell her mother what had happened.

"Mama, there was a--a head in the lake! It looked at me! It knew my name!"

Her mother's face broke into a smile. "A head, huh?" She sounded relieved.

Abigail started to pout. "You don't believe me."

"No, honey, I believe you. What did it look like?"

Abigail tried to breath evenly. "It was--purple. And big."

"How big?" her mother asked.

Abigail thought for a moment. "It was really, really big. And scary. It knew my name," she said again. "It tried to eat me."

"Oh yeah?" her mother asked. "How do you know it tried to eat you?"

Abigail thought about this. "I don't know. It was moving towards me. It had big teeth."

Her mother kissed her. "Honey, just because something scares you at first doesn't mean its going to hurt you. What did it say"

Abigail tried to copy the seamonster's voice. "It said, 'Hello, Abigail.'" She sounded funny when she talked low like that, and she and her mother both laughed. She was a little less scared.

"It sounds to me like the head was just trying to be friendly," her mother said. "Lets see if its still there." They walked over to the kitchen window and looked back at the lake. There was nothing there. Abigail could see her basket sitting down by the shore where she had dropped it.

"Where did it go?" asked Abigail.

"Honey, it probably went back under the lake."

Abigail's eyes got very big. "Does it live there all the time?"

"I guess so, honey. Aren't you going to go get your basket?"

Abigail shook her head. "No way."

But later, when her father got home, he walked her down to the lake so they could get her basket. She held very tightly onto his hand. She looked out into the lake, where the sun was setting, hoping to see the seamonster so she could run back to the house before he got close. But the seamonster never appeared.

When they reached her basket, there was an enormous green shell sitting in it. It was the biggest shell she had ever seen, and it was a beautiful shade of green. She had never seen any shell like it.

Her father saw it and said, "Wow, sweetie, you found a good shell today."

She said, "I didn't find that one. It wasn't here before."

"Well, where did it come from, then?" her father asked.

She shook her head, and said, "I don't know."

But all the way back up the hill she looked over her shoulder for the seamonster.

# posted by Daniel at 5:17 PM.

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