A young girl of seven stood in the tall yellow grass under the stark trees on the shore of the vast green lake watching, quietly, for the fearful sea monster that she believed lived far below the surface of the lake. Her mother had told her about the imposing sea monster and how, when she was a young girl, she stood on the shore of the vast green lake, too, and watched quietly for the sea monster to break the water’s surface. And then the young girl was born and her mother stopped watching for the sea monster. It was the young girl’s turn now.
Clouds were beginning to build in the west and the wind blew cold out of the north, but still the young girl stood quietly and watched. She picked up a stone to skip across the surface of the vast green lake, but thought better of it and dropped the stone. Her mother had told her the story of how her brother, while playing one day in the heap of yellow and orange leaves that had fallen from the trees along the shore of the vast green lake, had seen the giant sea monster. And ever since her mother had told her the story, the young girl, every chance she got, went to the shore of the shimmering green lake to stand in the tall grass under the bare limbs of the large trees in the hope of seeing the terrible sea monster.
The cold wind rustled the last of the yellow leaves in the gaunt trees that grew along the shore of the vast green lake. The young girl sat down in the tall grass protected from the cold wind, but never took her eyes off the shimmering green lake. She wondered about the sea monster. How did it live so far below the surface of the water? What did it look like? And then she wondered if it even existed. But of course it did, her mother had told her about it. Lots of things lived deep under the surface of the vast green lake that she’d never seen, but just because she’d never seen them didn’t mean that they didn’t exist.
She nestled further down in the tall grass protected from the cold north wind. The wind rustled the tall yellow grass and scattered the dying leaves, and the young girl fell asleep. She dreamed of the sea monster.
Off in the distance, something broke the surface of the vast green lake while the young girl slept. And at home the young girl’s mother stood quietly, looking out the kitchen window in the direction of the vast green lake, and smiled at the memory of the story her brother had told her so long ago of the strange and awful sea monster that lived there. He is colorful, her brother had told her excitedly, made up of colors that you’d never imagine, not even in your wildest dreams. You have to see him to believe him, he had told her. And she remembered telling her wide-eyed daughter the story of the colorful sea monster that lived far below the surface of the vast green lake.
“Have you seen it?” her daughter had asked her.
“No, I haven’t,” she told her daughter.
“Then how do you know it is there?” her daughter had asked.
“Because my brother saw it,” she told her daughter.
“But who is he?” she had asked.
“He is your uncle,” she had told her.
“But where is he?” she had asked.
“He went away,” she told her.
“Why?” she had asked.
“I don’t know exactly, maybe because he was searching for something that he couldn’t find here,” she had told her daughter.
The young girl’s mother stood quietly at the kitchen window and, in the last glow of sunlight, looked in the direction of the vast green lake and smiled at the memory of her brother. And she smiled, too, knowing that her daughter would be home soon.
