Jeffery Kooistra: A Monster's Tale

When she looked up again, she saw Fred moving. “Fred! Fred!” she called, but he didn’t acknowledge. He was alert enough to his situation that he was squirming out of his life jacket. He was a sitting duck bobbing around on the surface.

The monster tried to strike at Fred, but he disappeared beneath the surface, corning up a few dozen feet away ten heart-stopping seconds later. I lie great beast was too massive to alter its movement midstrike, chomping on the life jacket, but slowly recoiled for another.

Though the episode could not have lasted for more than a few minutes, to Kelly it was an hour of agony. How best to use that last burst?

The serpent made another stab at I red, and again he evaded, but even from the boat Kelly could see that he was tiring.

She clicked the lever to single shot, carefully aimed and led her target, and fired a shot that missed the eye she was aiming at but buried itself in the sea monster’s snout. It bellowed deafeningly, then turned aside from Fred and came for the Witch.

“Steady. Steady” Kelly said to herself. When it got close, she’d go for the eye again. She watched it approach through the sights, carefully lining up her shot. She didn’t want to miss. She couldn’t.

She was too cautious. The monster came faster than she thought and startled her. The jaws came down in a streak, she twisted away, and the loud, sharp snap of the jaws closing told her that it had missed.

Almost. In getting away Kelly had rolled under a deck bench. As she watched the creature, it seemed puzzled at being unable to find her and turned away. It was then she noticed blood flowing from her left arm below the triceps. The gash would need care, but it would have to wait.

Kelly crawled out from her hiding place. While the creature had been pursuing her, Fred had returned to his shredded life jacket, was clinging to it. He saw her looking at him and waved that he was OK, even as the monster was again heading for him.

Kelly returned to the machine gun. Her left arm was going numb. She knew her aim would be terrible.

How many more dodges did Fred have left in him? she worried. Don’t be a fool! He’s dead unless you do something.

Dead in a gruesome way—chewed to death.

Kelly couldn’t let that happen. She had one burst left. She loved him.

Slowly, she swung the muzzle of the gun in his direction.

He must have seen her, must have known what she was doing. He was screaming something.

The serpent had dived down below and come up on the far side of Fred. The head rose high, Fred abandoned the life jacket, and it came down in a mighty splash upon the jacket.

Kelly again trained the gun on Fred.

He was screaming at her while desperately trying to tread water. God, he must be exhausted. She could hardly hear him. What was he saying: “Oot the itch?” No, “shoot the bitch,” that had to be it.

The three humps of the monster were close to disappearing. The head would be up again in seconds.

Kelly was lined up on Fred. She listened to his screams—they’d be the last things she ever heard him say. She knew the words would haunt her the rest of her life—shoot the bitch.

Only now it sounded more like “shoot the witch.”

Or did he mean the Witch?

Could he mean…?

Kelly turned the gun around, pointed it at the deck, and let loose with the last burst.

The bullets ripped the hell out of the deck. Splinters of wood flew all around her. The racket was deafening, the sound of the slugs impacting reverberating and resonating throughout the Flying Witch.

And the ocean below.

The tracers had set small fires. The Witch was dying. But Fred was swimming toward her.

And the serpent was gone.

She helped Fred climb up the ladder into the boat. She wrapped her arms around him but he pushed her away. “We have to put out the fires,” he said.

The extinquishers made short work of the flames, and they found themselves on a listing boat. The Witch had self-sealing compartments, so they’d stopped taking on water. But Kelly knew her boat was dead—the compartments that did get flooded were vital ones.

Their SOS had been acknowledged, and they were waiting to be picked up. Less than ten minutes had passed since the ordeal.

“I’m sorry about the Witch Fred said.

She sighed and leaned against him. “I guess there was someone who could take her away from me. How did you know that shooting the boat would work?”

“I didn’t,” Fred said. “But you were being braver than I was.”

Suddenly, off the port side, the sea serpent sounded, its body coming fully a hundred feet out of the water before splashing down.

And then another one did the same.

“Look!” Kelly shouted, pointing.-“Not again.”

But the two sea monsters seemed oblivious to them, and after swimming side by side for a few hundred yards, humps in harmony, they dove and were gone for good.

“Did you notice that the second one was missing a fin?” Fred asked.

“Our monster was looking for its mate?”

“I think so. Maybe the scent did do the trick.”

“It must be nice to have someone who’ll come looking for you,” Kelly said.

“It is,” Fred said. Then: “You’ll come with me, won’t you? I mean, your home is gone. And I love you. And—”

Kelly put her finger to his lips to quiet him. “Of course I’ll come with you, Fred. But I want you to meet my mom first.”