Another Monster Story (The Swamp Thing)

Part 1

 Everyone around knew 'bout the thing in the swamp. It weren't just me that saw it, at night, wanderin' around and doin' God knows what. Course, everyone had their own idea of what it looked like. Some said it had eight eyes, others twelve. Some said it had arms like a crawdad with big ol' claws on the end, though the first time I ever heard of it, they told me it was like a tree had just started walkin' around, with branches instead 'f hands.

Well, that's what they said they saw. And I don't really KNOW what it is that I saw, but let me tell you this and I'd like you to believe me - I saw it. And when seven or ten different honest to good types see the monster, you know it's real. Or, you know you're all crazy.

I'll let you choose for yerself which you think it is.

I first heard of the monster like any boy hears about a monster - from his crazy grandpappy. Or, maybe it's just me that heard about it that way. But the old man, he liked to go on for hours. Hell, it was all he ever talked about, that monster. How it'd eat everything in the swamp, whether it be man, possum or even gators if it felt like it wanted to. He swore he'd find half a gator in his traps time to time, just ripped in half, innards hangin' out like yesterday's laundry.

Ma thought he was batshit crazy, though, and to be honest... she was probably right.

One night, I remember, when I was little, I heard a crash in the middle of the night, when I ought to have been sound asleep. It scared me half to death, and I wet the sheets right there, started bawlin'. I just knew that swamp thing was gonna rip me in half and leave my insides spread all over the floor, I knew it! My ma came in to find me sitting there in a puddle, screaming my head off, and she looked outside to see what had made the crash -

And saw my grandpappy, holdin' a wooden spoon and a pot, just bangin' 'em together. He didn't even care that he'd been caught, just cackled and told my ma he'd just been playin'. Once I was over my trauma, I figured it'd be a good idea to laugh, too. I pretended I'd never been scared - I was too old to be scared, of course.

Ma didn't think it was funny at all. She said she didn't want me spendin' too much time around him. Said it was bad for me.

I disagreed with her. Still do. If anythin', I was learnin' to fear the swamp, and if there's one thing I know better than anything else it's that a good, healthy fear of the swamp is the most important thing you can have when you're livin' nearby it.

But my ma didn't think like that. She thought the most important thing you could have was an education. So, she sent me off to get one. And I learned all I could - Learned that man is mortal. Learned there's no such thing as monsters. And putting two and two together, that meant there was no such 'thing' as the 'thing' my grandpa had always rambled on about.

Didn't go back to that damned swamp for years. Stayed as far away as I could. Part of me probably thought I was too good for the mud, and slime. Part of me, I think, was likely still scared of that goddamn swamp thing.

Even though it didn't exist.

Then, years later, I got a call from my ma. She said my grandpappy had died, and to come home right away. I was workin', at the time, working on an oil rig out in the middle of the ocean. But a boy doesn't say no to his mama, if he's been raised right, so I dropped everything. After all, this was my grandpappy we were talking about. The man had taught me so many things that school never could.

I got home on a Tuesday. Said hi to my ma, my brothers, and my pa - who didn't look too happy to see me, but I didn't mind him. Never minded him. He thought I was too good for him, being a big working man now, and all. And I thought he was too good for me, being the kind who stayed home and took care of his family. So I didn't mind him. And he didn't mind me, and we didn't share a word.