I’m going to preempt this short story, actually, and that starts with a confession. I wrote it over two years ago for a creative writing course. The prompt was “Write in a voice that is not your own”, or something to that effect. I chose to write in the voice of a small yet remarkably well-spoken child, perhaps three years old (also female, so I got double points on that!). The continuity on this is all over the place, as the protagonist Sierra goes from improper grammar to using words like “reciprocated”. I assure you, that’s very much intentional; I just wanted to make this story as silly as possible. So, I hope you enjoy it.
The Morning Monster
Most times when it’s morning, my brother gets eated up.
It scared me a lot the first time it happened. I had a bad dream and I had gotten up real early, so early that the sun hadn’t waked up yet. I managed to get out of my crib (something I’ve been able to do for a few weeks now) and I crawled out of my room to find Mommy.
She was in the kitchen, standing next to the counter, but she didn’t see me. I was gonna get her attention in my own special way, but then I heard a loud noise outside. Curious, I crawled over to the door. The big yellow one was open, but the screen door was shut and I couldn’t get it open. I saw my big brother standing outside across the street, something that I’ve never been allowed to do, with a few other people standing around. They were all wearing those big bags I see my brother with all the time, like Mommy’s bag, except bigger and hanging around their necks. It sounded like they were talking to each other, but it was hard to hear over the loud noise, coming closer and closer. I turned my head, looked, and gasped. A giant monster, yellow like my door, came rumbling through the dark.
This thing was scarier than any nightmare I had ever dreamed up. It’s had two pairs of eyes. One pair glowed menacingly, twinkling towards my brother and his friends. But, the other pair of eyes was worse. The eye was clear, and in the right one, I’m pretty sure that I saw a man trapped inside. He clearly had been eated before this time. The monster crawled quickly towards my brother, making a terrible racket, and I found that I couldn’t even scream anymore when it slowed to a halt right over where my brother stood.
Just before he was eated, my brother just looked calmly at the beast. He’s always so brave.
Then, with a burst a black smoke coming outta its behind, the yellow monster crawled away, and my brother and his friends were gone.
At that point, I screamed.
Mommy came out to see what the matter was, and when she looked down at me, she exclaimed, “Oh, my poor baby daughter! What’s wrong?” I tried to tell her, but she couldn’t understand me, so I just pointed to where my brother disappeared and cried, “Bruh!”
Mommy looked outside, but she didn’t look too worried. She clearly didn’t understand what happened, so I cried louder. Eventually, she must’ve caught on, because she exclaimed, “Not again!” and ran to get her coat. Glad that she finally realized the danger, I stopped crying, certain that Mommy would know what to do. Mommy, grabbing something from the counter in the kitchen, took me outside so we could chase down the monster.
When I was all set in my command seat, Mommy got in the pilot’s seat and we started moving in our own monster. This monster, while not as big as the one we were chasing, was tame and moved with gently, unlike the brute that had eated my brother. We moved swiftly, and after a while, I saw the monster ahead. It was parked in front of a big building, lots bigger than my house. Mommy stopped, too, and got out of our nice monster. She went over to the yellow monster, and as she approached, with the full paper bag she had picked up before leaving, the monster spilled out lots of people.
I was happy, and I waved my fists in the air for my Mommy defeating the monster. My brother came out of the monster, and Mommy gave him the paper bag, saying, “I keep telling you to remember your lunch! I had to bring Sierra out here and everything to get you your lunch!” Big brother mumbled something about being embarrassed, and Mommy told him she loved him, which he reciprocated quietly. Then, Mommy came back and we went home.
Ever since, my brother keeps getting eated by the monster every day. Still, it always spits him back out by daytime, because my Mommy scared it so bad. I haven’t been frightened by it since.
Nimbus in a Bottle 