Jasmine G. Crawshaw
Jasmine G. Crawshaw
At McMaster University, Jasmine Crawshaw completed the Concurrent Certificate of Narrative Arts program, graduated with a Master’s in English, and is currently pursuing a Master’s in History. She has written several plays for McMaster University’s theatre club and contributed multiple stories to the school's literary magazine. In addition to her academic work, she is a freelancer, actively writing and composing for commissions. Her stories have been featured in magazines such as Suburban Witchcraft Magazine, Working Title Magazine, and World of Myth Magazine. Her piece, So You Want To Slay A Dragon, is set to be published in McMaster’s literary magazine, Spectrum, this winter. She retains the rights to these stories.
The Pond
“I dare you, Josh.”
“No way, Dennis, you’re full of it!”
“Oh yeah?” Dennis smirked. “Then why won’t you go? If you don’t think it exists, then why are you being such a wussy?”
The kids circling around them oohed and giggled. Josh’s cheeks bloomed red. He puffed up his chest, straining to appear taller, and glowered up at Dennis.
“You really expect me to think that you saw a monster at the pond?” He hollered shrilly over the crowds, stomping his boot on the concrete pavement. “How stupid do you think I am?”
“Pretty stupid.” Dennis laughed, a chorus of hoots around them. “I saw it yesterday when I went fishing!” He bellowed over the gaggle crowding closer around them.
“Maybe you just saw your mom swimming.” Josh spat back, the wall of kids erupting louder into gleeful jeers. Dennis, his teeth clenched in a snarl, roughly grabbed Josh’s shoulders and shoved him back. Josh wobbled, his arms flailing as he tried to stay upright, but he widened his legs apart and managed to plant his feet firmly on the ground. He sighed out; the last thing he wanted to do was fall flat on his butt in front of the whole school, but his relief vanished when Dennis stomped over. “He’s as big as a gorilla.” Josh winced, struggling to stand tall as Dennis towered over him.
“Everyone here knows he’s there!” Dennis screeched. “But this time, I actually saw him!”
“T-then y-you’re an idiot.” Josh stammered, his voice softer.
“Am not!”
“You are too!”
“Then go to the pond! Watch it for a while, you’ll see! I double—no, I triple dare you!”
A hush fell over the crowd, dozens of eyes darting back and forth from Dennis, who stood proudly, and Josh, who began to fidget and hunch lower. Silence filled the playground for what seemed like forever, until one kid, shrilly whined out, “Come on Josh, do it! Do it!”
At that, another kid joined in the call, and then another and another, until in a flash, the entire playground was engulfed by the raucous chanting of “Do it! Do it! DO IT!!”
Josh grimaced, eyeing around the crowd. “Obviously the Pond Monster can’t exist…can it? Dad said it’s like Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster; no one’s ever seen it, so it can’t be real.” Josh frowned. “There’s just no way it can be real! It’s just some story people made up. It must be. Has to be! Besides, if I say no, then the whole school will think I’m a wimp!”
Josh took a deep breath. “All right…All right. I’ll do it! I’ll show you, Dennis, I’ll show you’re wrong! You’re all wrong! It doesn’t exist!”
Josh’s feet felt heavy as he tiptoed over, staring in awe at the pond. It was as wide as a football field, with a long fence of reeds shadowing the still, mossy waters.
“Who knows what’s underwater…” Josh shuddered for a moment before clenching his fists, trying to bolden himself. “No…I’m not wrong; there’s no such thing as some stupid pond monster. They’ll see, I’ll show them all.” A shaky smile crept up his lips. “There’s nothing to be scared of…really!”
His feet shuffled closer, inch by inch closer to the ebbing water. He glanced back towards the clearing, where he, Dennis, and the rest of his friends walked over with him. When they first arrived, they parked their bikes at the top, by an oak tree, laughing down at him as he slowly walked to the pond. But now, with him almost being right at the edge, they disappeared.
“Did they hide behind a tree?” Josh wondered, his eyes narrowed in confusion, but he couldn’t see their bikes, not even a gleam from them. “And they called me a wuss.” Josh scowled. “Honestly!”
The sudden feeling of his sneaker splashing into frigid water made him halt. He looked down, watching the algae caress his ankle. He hopped back onto the land, and standing on the edge, eyed the murky surface. The pond rippled from the movement of vague shadows underneath that danced under the moss, and chilly gusts careened through the trembling reeds. “That must be why I’m shivering right now.” Josh nodded to himself. “I’m just cold.”
Though the wind howled across the water, nothing emerged from it. The pond was quiet, and for the most part, still. Josh let out a sigh, remaining by the edge, and plucked his phone from out of his pocket. Smiling, he took a selfie of himself pointing at the pond, the click was the only sound he could hear in the droning silence. He stayed for six minutes, lazily sitting by the edge, only looking away from the pond to check the passing minutes on his phone. After a while, he felt numb, both by the cold breeze and his own boredom. “Yeah, I think I’ve been here long enough.” He yawned, rising off the damp earth. “So much for the Pond Monster,” he chuckled.
He stood and stretched, raising his head and arms to the cloudy sky, as something in the far-off distance drifted from the reeds. It floated slowly and silently, half-submerged in the water. The water didn’t even ripple as it stealthily glided across the pond, as smoothly as a knife through butter. Josh lowered his head, smirking proudly to himself, and reached down his arm to pick up a nearby rock from the bank.
“Can’t believe they’re so afraid of just a stupid pond.” He looked up, grinning. He threw his arm back, readying to whip the rock as far as he could throw, but his arm went stiff, and the rock fell out of his grasp when he saw the thing sliding over to the edge of the pond where he stood.
Josh squinted at it, starting to shuffle his feet back. His stomach tightened. “What is it?” He wondered. “It looks…bumpy. And brown. Kind of like a log. That’s what it must be. It’s just a log, there’s lots of trees here, it’s a log.” But like an arrow, the thing still shot directly towards Josh, and he began to sweat. “There are no branches on it though, I don’t think, it’s still too far to see. There could be. It could be a log, it must be…but if it isn’t?
The sudden images of sharp teeth, angry slitted eyes, and red-hot blood flashed before his eyes. “No, no, it’s nothing bad! It’s just stuff Dennis says!” But his gaze never left the thing in the pond, shrouded in shadow and moss like a snake slithering through grass. His heart started to drum faster. “Are logs that bumpy? I’m sure some trees are. But aren’t logs bigger? Is it an alligator? I don’t see any scales though. Or fins, could fish be that big?” His feet quickened, starting to slip over each other as he stepped back. “Or maybe it’s…could it be that it’s—”
The thing trekked further across the deathly-silent pond, until it was halfway near the shore. “Is he swimming faster?” Josh panicked, staring at it. “Is he going after me? Just what is in the water?”
His mind racing and brimming with unease, Josh stumbled away from the pond and staggered onto his bike. He pedaled away, hearing nothing but the squeaks of his pedals and the roaring of the wind across his face as he sped away. He never heard a splash. He didn’t even dare to look back.
The schoolyard was abuzz, swarming around Josh like flies to honey.
“Did you see him?”
“What did he look like?”
“Did he try to eat you?”
“Was Dennis really lying when he said he saw it?”
Josh felt like he was in a tornado. “What do I say? That I ran away? That I couldn’t see him? What did I ever see?”
His thoughts were interrupted by the thudding of approaching footsteps. He jumped and whirled around to see Dennis marching over with a smug and haughty expression. He stomped up to Josh, his hands on his hips, leering down.
“So, Josh, did you see him? Or did you wimp out?”
The crowding kids hushed and watched Josh expectedly.
Josh, struggling to relax his shaking arm, held up his phone and showed Dennis his selfie. In it, the pond was still, save for some rustling reeds, behind Josh as he smiled at the camera.
Dennis scoffed mockingly. “Wow, so you did go. But did you stay?”
“Y-yeah, of course I did.” He mumbled, trying not to stammer.
“Yeah, right. You chickened out, didn’t you? Did you even stay there for very long?”
“I showed you the picture, and I was there for six minutes. I checked! What more do you want?”
“For you to tell the truth! Admit it, you saw him, and you were wrong.”
Josh, his face burning brightly, stretched himself as tall as he could stand, and forced his eyes to glare unblinkingly into Dennis’ own.
“No…No, I told you so Dennis, you’re wrong. He doesn’t exist.”