A Part of the Process

English Assignment (2)

-written October 28th, 2015-

The arrival of the train was always looked forward to by the people. It wasn't a passenger train, simply one transporting various cargo to the towns and cities, travelling almost constantly, day and night, rain or shine. The conductor didn't mind at all. Like a sailor and his ship, the train wasn't just his job, it was his home. He kept it in pristine condition, made sure everything was working properly, and took great pride in it.

The train travelled all around, which included going through the isolated swamp. The tracks twisted and turned, avoiding the water. The train was bordered by all sorts of vegetation-trees, bushes, long grasses-that appeared as though they were hiding something in the deepest parts of the swamp. Although it wasn't the ideal place to put train tracks, it was the most direct route to the biggest city, and the conductor never once wondered what was out there. He made his rounds through the swamp at night, and could only see what the light on the train allowed him to, so he didn't waste time with speculations about what was living in the darkness.

Even if there was something out there, the horn on the train would scare it off. It could be heard for miles, heralding the arrival of the train and the conductor everywhere they went. It sounded almost like a fog horn, calling out across the water to warn ships of danger, but the train's horn called out across the swampy landscape, letting every living thing know that it was there. What the conductor didn't know, for there was no way he could know, was that there was a creature out there, always listening for the sound of the train.

It lived in the swamp, in a great puddle choked with grasses and cattails and a number of other plants. It feasted on anything it could get its jaws around, be it frog, bird, snake, or any other creature who had the misfortune of wandering into its home. Food was never an issue for it; the lake was small for a lake, but large enough that other animals were drawn to it. The creature resembled a reptile of some sort, with great curling horns on its head and slit pupils. A long tail swished behind it as it swam around, only its eyes and nose poking out of the water, resembling one of the many alligators it had killed for trespassing.

One night, something caused it to blink its huge eyes open and rise silently to the surface. Lifting its horned head, water streaming down its scaly neck, it heard a sound calling out. It sounded like it was alone, trying to let others know that it was there, it was alive, and it existed. The creature blinked. Although it lived comfortably in the swamp, it was lonely. It could sympathize with whatever was making the sound, so it opened its jaws and cried out. It got an answer, so it cried out once more. The noise answered again. The creature kept calling out until the noise had faded away and it was left by itself in the dark.

Eventually, the creature would rise out of the water even before the noise was heard, and would wait for it to roll across the night. It felt as though it had a friend, someone to talk to in the loneliness of the swamp, but one night, years later, the creature waited, and waited, and waited some more. It waited all night, and then into the day, and even then to the next night, always crying out, but the sound was never heard. Defeated, the creature sunk down to the bottom of the lake, never to cry out again.

-

I know the ending is super bad, but I wanted to try to make this as short as possible. I still ended up being 400 words over the word limit.... We were supposed to write about an alternate setting for the story "The Fog Horn" by Ray Bradbury, which is basically a story about two guys in a lighthouse that gets destroyed by a sea monster dinosaur thing. We had to make sure it has a place for the monster to hide and something that would draw its attention, but I just wrote way too much.

Anyway, I'd appreciate any feedback, mainly if you think I should leave it like this or rewrite it and focus more on the setting part of it.

~Dusk