Boys!!

           Boys!!

It was preposterous. Everyone knows there is no such thing as a mermaid.  In the school yard, some of the boys had been laughing and telling everyone about ‘a real mermaid’. They swore they had seen one when they went on a hike the weekend before. They wouldn’t tell exactly but the girls all knew where they liked to go. So the girls decided that they would go on their own treasure hunt. They arrived at the long white sand beach that stretched ahead of them. Studded with polished driftwood and purple sea stars washed against seaweed covered rocks, the beach unrolled into the distance like a nubbly carpet. The rolling ocean could only wrap itself around the tips of the long, gnarled fingers of land on either side. They set out to the west gathering rocks, moss and fossils, their beautifully woven bags slowly filling with their sodden loot. When the circle of friends rounded the mulberry bush at the end of one of the spits, they all stopped at once and gasped. A great waterfall fell in lacy white foam spraying up into the draping moss. The sun shone a rainbow through the spray. Arriving just in time to see a family of beautiful mermaids slide laughingly, but gracefully, into the swirling sea and disappear beneath the frothy waves. How could they tell boys anything! Well they just wouldn’t. Telling them anything would definitely be preposterous!

“Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, 

breaking rules, making mistakes and having fun. “

 ~ Mary Lou Cook

**This second version of the post dated Aug.22, 2012, is created from six base words only and is from a writing exercise from March 2011. The six words are bush, waterfall, mermaid, fossil, circle, preposterous.