The Sea Creature in White Lake

It was a scorching summer day, and I didn’t want to bake in the sun at home. My sister Paisley was on the couch reading a book from the local library about mysterious creatures and our old beagle, Ollie, was lazing around in the sunshine that filtered through the windows. Our air conditioning was temporarily out of service, so the house felt like it was over a hundred degrees. After my ninth cup of water, I turned to Paisley, who was completely engrossed in her book.

“Paisley?” I asked. “Want to head over to Whit Lake?”

“Really?” she said, her eyes widening with expectancy. “Thanks, Matthew!”

When she heard the name of our favorite lake to go swimming in, she set down her book, bounced off the couch, and dashed upstairs to get ready. I grinned and shook my head at how excited she could get for little things.

Later, after we changed and packed some towels, I whistled to Ollie to get him to follow us outside. I closed the door behind us, and we made our way down the familiar rocky path beside our house that led to Whit Lake. The feeling of the pebbles on my barefoot feet was comforting since most of my fondest memories were made at Whit Lake. As we walked, Paisley began to chat about how she was so excited to start second grade the following year,  and Ollie stumbled around behind us, sniffing at every tree and blade of grass.

When we arrived at the banks of the lake, we set our towels on the small wooden docks that were attached to the shore. When we were ready, I w as about to jump into the cool water when a big splash in the middle of the lake sent outripples. Something was in there, something almost as large as the lake itself.

Ollie began to bark at the large creature that had frills sticking up above the water as it moved silently around the lake. I took a step back from the edge of the dock, but I ended up slumping to the ground in disbelief.  Paisley stiffened and grabbed my hand in fear as the creature’s head surfaced, and an emerald green eye inspected us.

“What is it?” I whispered.

Its pupil was a large black slit like a cat’s, and a clear eyelid skimmed across its eyeball. I held my breath as it examined us, then stretched its head to the sky, revealing a long scaly neck.

Paisley’s fear suddenly seemed to evaporate when she shrieked like a fangirl. “It’s the Lochness Monster!”

“What?” I responded. “The Lochness Monster isn’t real. The thing in the lake has to be a shark.”

“A shark?” Paisley yelled. “How could a shark end up here? This lake doesn’t connect to the ocean!”

“It’s the same logic for the thing in the lake, too!” I shouted back.

Paisley glared at me, then did the impossible. She jumped off the docks before I could reach out and stop her.

“Paisley!” I yelled. “What are you doing?”

As soon as she landed in the water, the creature whipped around in her direction and gazed at her. Paisley slowly approached, reaching a hand out to stroke it. Amazingly, the creature rolled over on its stomach and welcomed a belly rub from her in satisfaction.

I stared at them for a few moments, and Ollie seemed to ooze jealousy. Once I snapped back to my senses, I dangled my hand from the dock and lifted Paisley out.

“Hey!” she complained. “I want to keep playing with Nessie!”

“But-” I began to say when she cut me off.

“You should come in too, Matt!” she said, pushing me into the water before I could do anything.

I panicked, realizing I was in a lake with a possible sea monster, but Ollie and Paisley joined me. My little sister pulled me over to Nessie and showed me where she enjoyed being rubbed. I placed a tentative hand on her neck and petted her until she let out low moans that sounded like purrs.

“See?” Paisley grinned. “She’s a gentle giant.”

I had to admit that I thought she was pretty sweet for a bloodthirsty, ship-ravaging sea creature.

We spent the rest of the day playing with Nessie and teaching her how to fetch rocks and balance Ollie on her snout. We also attempted riding her, but she was too slippery to stay on.

When we started feeling cold and the sun was about to set, I convinced Paisley to say her farewells to Nessie. We wrapped ourselves in our towels and laughed as Ollie shook himself dry. Nessie copied him in the water by creating huge waves in the lake.

As we took the path back to our home, I brought up a theory to Paisley on how Nessie ended up in the lake .

“Remember that one time two years ago when we discovered a group of large fish eggs in the lake?” I asked.

“Oh, yeah!” Paisley said. “I was expecting them to hatch so I could catch some, but they didn’t survive.”

“All of them didn’t, except Nessie,” I responded. “She was the only one who hatched.”

Paisley stopped in her tracks and turned to me, her face shining. “You’re brilliant!”

When the path stopped, and we returned inside the house, we dried ourselves and changed into new clothes. Before Paisley could reach for her book again, I invited her on the couch so she could hear the rest of my theory.

“And, do you remember last summer when there was a medium-sized fish that was super energetic and would zoom around the lake? That’s what I call a high-energized sea creature toddler.”

“Right!” Paisley grinned. “All of that makes sense, except one thing.”

“What?” I asked, confused. I was sure my theory was rock-solid.

“How did the eggs end up in the lake in the first place?”

Her question shocked me. A sudden thought struck my brain, and I turned to my sister slowly.

“Paisley, what if those eggs were laid 60 million years ago when the lake was connected to the sea, and she only hatched recently while having the perfect circumstances. And…you know how she was pretty big today?”

“Yeah…” Paisley said, smoothing her pigtails nervously.

“Maybe she’s still a child in sea creature years. Who knows how large she’ll become in the next hundreds of years?”

“You’re creeping me out…”

I suddenly felt guilty for scaring my sister, who was only six. I told her not to worry about it, then made some sandwiches before our parents got home from work. I was glad that Whit Lake was on our property, so we could visit Nessie any time to check on her and protect her from evil scientists or the like.

Later, when we finished up our supper, I brought up the idea of sharing the secret at Whit Lake with our mother and father to Paisley.

“No way!” she said. “Kids only. Pinky promise?”

I promised, then went upstairs to brush my teeth and change into my pajamas. I stayed awake all night, hoping Nessie would be safe from the dangers of the world and her monstrous instincts that could make her do terrible things. But then I thought of the gentle side of her, and I didn’t have to worry anymore. I slept into a deep sleep and dreamt of cats with fins and dogs with long scaly necks.