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Our second place winner is fifth grader Deklan Boyles. Mr. Boyles attends the West Melbourne Elementary School for Science and lives in Palm Bay, Florida. |
“Tis midnight in a future Halloween which thou will experience multifarious trepidations,” quoth my jolly friend Gabriel. It is the midnight before Halloween in Dublin lake. There is a scintilla of fog. The dock which we are at is enveloped in darkness. “Shall we get our good vessel running again?” says I. Gabriel nods yes. Gabriel and I are fishermen with a business that delivers fresh fish to markets and restaurants in the area. We had just finished our third run of fishing and since we were filling up our boat each time, we decided to go back out again. The boat seemed to be great luck. I had recently inherited the steamboat from my grandfather’s uncle who had just passed away. I never met him but saw him in an old photograph taken with my grandfather when they were young. Suddenly, an apparition appears.
“What is thou steamboat named?” Questions the specter that seems to know the two fishermen. “We have not named her yet,” replies Gabriel. Angrily, the ghost yells, “I giveth thou a boat yet ye have not taketh the time to name her?” Gabriel and I look at each other confused, but not scared. The ghost looks like my grandfather’s uncle, wearing a black suit with a red tie. “Curse he who doth not taketh the time to name his boat!” yells the apparition once more. “A monster will arise to destroy the people in this lake.” Facing the specter, Gabriel yells, “Begone you foul being!” I join in and yell, “Away with you Prophet!” Gabriel looks at his stopwatch made out of rusted gold. It wasn’t working. It was still midnight. And with a silent breeze and a rush of fog, the man was gone. True, he had provided us with a boat, and now, luckily, he couldn't taketh our boat away.
I look out at the moon gazing at us and I thought, “The Lord has giveth us this beautiful planet, and one day the Lord will taketh it away.” Our other trusted sailor, Will, looks at a shipping crate on the boat and asks, “Amtreks?” Will has a recently discovered medical condition called dyslexia. “Maersk,” I say. We had scrapped some old shipping crates left on the boat to use as storage units for our fresh fish. Will hands us a load of fish which we put in our old buggies. We have two buggies, both driven by donkeys. I hop back on the boat. I start up the steam-powered motor while Will and Gabriel go below deck to get the boat ready for another run of fishing. I push the engine to full speed and the propeller screw nearly comes out of the water. As we get out into the center of the lack, Will taps on my shoulder trembling. “Sir,” the frightened sailor says. “You might want to see this, Sir.” I walk toward the bow of the steamboat. I look out to the right and see a yacht. Water is pouring over the edge. A family of three is looking down. I see nothing but something that looks like propwash.
I turn the engine off, get our docking oar, and paddle to the family. As I push the oar under one last time, I feel a jolt and hear a thud. All of a sudden, something seems to be squirming underneath my oar. I tell Will and Gabriel to get the biggest fishing rig on the boat ready as I held the creature down. As Gabriel lowers the rig, I push the hook into the creature. I wave to Gabriel and he cranks the rig up. I see we have caught a shark. Then, I rescue the family from their badly damaged yacht. I asked the family what happened and they tell me.
I was mistaken, it was a family of four. A creature had eaten their little girl. Their little girl had wanted to swim so they let her jump into the lake. Within a second, she got pulled under by an unknown force and all they could see was what looked like propwash. We helped the family get back to shore and even parked their boat for them. Gabriel tapped his stopwatch, but it still wasn’t working. It was still showing midnight. We get back in the boat and pull away from the dock. We had to get back into the center of the lake to catch the best fish.
Again, I feel a jolt and hear a thud, and the boat almost tips over. I look out the window of my cab and see it. An eel with a dinosaur head and fins. Its teeth is about 2 feet long. The creature itself is 300... 350 feet maybe. I see Will eating some buttered corn on the cob. I frown. Will says, “What? It’s an exciting moment!” He has no fear. I push the throttle all the way forward. “Dang!” I yell. “We’ve lost it.” The monster is gone. Then, I hear a roaring sound. A rough wave! I tell everyone to get below deck as I take all the hooks off the fishing lines. I tighten the straps that hold the shipping crates down and seal the hatch to the cabin below deck. I climb into the driver’s cab and close the door behind me. I lock it for good measure and sit down. I push every single throttle lever down and hope to make it to the top of the wave. Finally, I make it over the wave. I see some other boats behind me. Some are lucky, but some aren’t. Then I realize this wave was caused by the monster. What beast could do this?
As I unlock the door and open the hatch, I see some people climb onto my boat. They must be from the boats that couldn’t make it over the wave. “Yikes!” I think. We can only fit so many people on this boat. I see someone fall off the boat and when I look down I see the same thing as before, something that looks like propwash. The monster is underneath us! Wait, the shipping crates! I get everyone into the shipping crates and lock the hatches. I ride down the wave and then race back towards it. It has destroyed the town by now. I push everything except the shipping crates off the boat. We need room for survivors. I push the throttle all the way down and we ride into the town. Once we get into town, I realize that I need to end this. I pick up more survivors, and grab what looks like a spear. I am going to kill this thing. I pull up to the monster and shove the spear into its eye. Success! The monster falls to the bottom of the town, dead.
The next day...
I am back at my house. The floodwater has spread out and gone back to the lake. People are already rebuilding. I wake up to start working on my boat. I start to build wooden supports and push them under the boat. First, I replace the propeller screw. I unscrew the bolt that runs down through the propeller and pull the prop off. Then, I clean the driveshaft and give it some oil. I also clean the screw and inspect it for rust. I put on the new propeller and sharpen the blades. Finally, I repaint the area its original color and name my boat, The Midnight Hero. I think about what I thought earlier. “The Lord has giveth us this beautiful planet, and one day the Lord will taketh it away.” Maybe another monster will try to taketh our town away. But if it does, we will be there to stop it and rebuild the town - again.
The End
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