Hunting Buddies

Rocks at Hornby Island

Hunting Buddies

Folk lore always has a great story to it, but held up in the light of day, this particular piece of lore seemed preposterous.  A group of men were at their daily haunt, the coffee shop, critically reading the rag that was popular with some of their wives.  “There’s no such thing.” They all agreed and because they were bored, decided to see for themselves. The newspaper article was very specific about the location of the sighting. The motley crew of coffee buddies loaded themselves in one of their pickups and went hunting. If anyone asked, they were looking for fossils and rocks, driftwood and sea stars - for their grandkids.

Parking close to the beach, the treasure hunters strolled nonchalantly down the spit of land in the direction of the circle of trees shielding a slender waterfall splashed through scraggly bushes and dow tall rock cliffs.

They each found what looked like a fossil or two, which slid into jacket pockets. As they approached an evergreen bush at the end of the beach, they could hear children splashing and playing. “Maybe we should go back. What if it’s some of the kids from town. They'll see us.”

But being quite brave, the group decided to just peek around the bush and see who was really there. Rounding the bush, they saw a beautiful chestnut haired mermaid riding the waves at the base of the foaming waterfall, three mer-children flipping in the water. The mer-family saw the group of men with their mouths hanging open, peering around the bush and, in a flash, the mermaid and her children were gone beneath the waves.

“Creative people are curious, flexible, persistent and independent 
with a tremendous spirit of  adventure and a love of play.”
~ Henry Matisse

** This third version uses the same base six words as the previous two posts (Aug. 22 and 23, 2012): bush, waterfall, mermaid, fossil, circle, preposterous. (from a writing exercise March 2011)