A Creek Somewhere
By Holden and Nico
Rubby walked outside the cabin and beckoned for Jerry to follow him: “We’re going to the creek!” Jerry, who was an 8 year old boy who was homeschooled by his mother and Rubby who was the father of Jerry, were going to catch a fish for their family for dinner, which they often did, living in a forest, right by a beautiful creek. Jerry carried the bait and Rubby carried the rods. When they got to the creek, they put the first line in. They had expected their trip to take around 3 hours, but after 30 minutes Jerry felt a tug on his line. “Dad, I think I've got one!” Jerry called to his dad to help him reel in it.
“That's my boy!” Rubby said proudly.
After a couple of hours, Rubby and Jerry had caught 7 fish and felt like it was time to head home and start cooking them. They lived in a cozy, cabin house, where they spent most of their time. When they had arrived home, Emy was waiting for them at the door, “How many have you caught today?” she asked.
“We caught 7 today. Jerry did a great job!” Rubby then sent Jerry upstairs to clean his room. He was used to being up there a lot, alone, by himself, with his thoughts. All Jerry wanted was to have a friend, which wasn’t easy living by a creek, away from civilization. Sure, he had his brothers, Jimmy and Timmy, but they spent most of their time teasing and pranking each other and Jerry.
After about an hour of Rubby, Jimmy, and Timmy cooking the fish, Timmy calls for Emy and Jerry to come downstairs for dinner. Jerry notices the TV on in the living room and takes his dinner and goes to watch the news. As Jerry is watching the news he notices a sad looking monster being electrocuted by a police officer's taser. The news reporter started interviewing a child who claimed to be the monster’s victim.
“I was just eating my ice cream when this scary monster started scaring me, so I told my mommy and they called the police,” said the little kid. Jerry watched as the monster was being forced into the back of a van. Jerry couldn’t really imagine the monster hurting someone because he looked so sad.
A little while later, Emy calls, “Jerry! Time for bed.” So Jerry walks upstairs into his small bedroom and gets into bed. He kept trying to get to sleep, but couldn’t help thinking about that monster. If only he knew where it was being held… No, Jerry thought, the police said that the monster tried to hurt the little kid. Why would they lie? After that thought, Jerry finally got to sleep.
He was awoken the next morning by creaking outside his bedroom door. He instantly remembered the monster and slowly opened it. He looked outside his room and didn’t see anything, so he turned around and went back into his bedroom, closing the door when… CREEAAAKKKK! The door opened again, slowly. Jerry instantly turned around to see a fuzzy-furred figure exactly like the one on TV.
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” Jerry screamed, as he slammed the door closed again. Could it really be the monster from the news? Jerry thought for a moment before he heard an, “Ow,” from right outside the door. But Jerry knew that voice. That couldn’t have been the monster. It sounded exactly like “TIMMMMMMYYYYYYYYY!” Jerry instantly opened the door and ripped the mask off his brother.
“You should’ve seen the look on your face,” Timmy remarked. Jerry was not delighted by this practical joke, so he called for Emy.
“Mommmmmmmmmmmmm! Timmy’s being mean to me.”
Timmy’s delighted face instantly turned sour, “Jerry, it was just a joke, relax.” Too late. Emy came down the hallway looking very tired.
“Both of you just go back to bed, it’s 5 o’clock in the morning. We’ll talk about this later.” Jerry smirked one last time at Timmy, before going to bed.
When Jerry got up a few hours later, everyone was already awake. He got dressed and went downstairs. He was delighted to find that Timmy actually got in trouble for once and grabbed some breakfast. “Jerry completely overreacted,” Timmy complained.”
“I agree,” said Jimmy, who always backed up his twin brother.
“Timmy, you’re grounded for a week for scaring your brother like that,” said Emy. She said it so firmly that Timmy didn’t even respond, knowing that there was no arguing.
The day was long and boring for Jerry. Rubby was up in his office all day working, Timmy and Jimmy were in their rooms, no doubt planning a way to get back at Jerry, and Emy was doing chores all day. With all this time, Jerry kept thinking about the monster. Surely it couldn’t have hurt that little kid, he kept thinking.
That night there was nothing about the monster on the news, so Jerry went to bed and decided to forget about it. He was just starting to drift off when he heard a loud moan from the forest. He thought it was just some sort of animal, so he decided to ignore it. A couple minutes later though he heard it again. He thought it must be one of Timmy and Jimmy’s pranks, so went back to bed. This continued on though for about half an hour and was keeping Jerry up, so he decided to go outside to investigate. He threw on a coat and went out. The moaning continued and Jerry followed it. He didn’t have to go very far to find the source.
The wind whistled a spooky sound. About a tenth of a mile from home, Jerry saw something flash behind a tree a little ways away. He blinked a couple times, trying to see what it was. As he crept closer he realized that the figure had fur. “It must be the monster!” Jerry accidentally said louder than he anticipated. He heard rustling in the distance, then immediately felt a weird sensation go through his body. It felt as if he were as light as a feather, like he could just float away without a care in the world. He then realized though, that he actually was floating. He then felt himself being tugged into the direction of the monster. He no longer liked the floating sensation. He was very scared, because he had no control over where he was going. He then saw it: the monster.
It was completely blue with the fur of a teddy bear’s glistening in the moonlight. He seemed to be moving his hands in the same direction Jerry was being pulled. The entity’s limbs were not very long, but they too were covered in this super soft, glistening-in-the-moonlight fur. The monster must be pulling him. As Jerry looked down he realized the monster seemed to be wearing metal boots that covered his entire legs. Jerry was absolutely terrified at this point. He had no idea that the monster had telekinesis. The monster's face seemed dis-proportionate to his body a tiny circle with eyes somewhere in the middle of its body. His beady eyes seemed to be hyper focused on him. I'm going to die, I’m going to die, I’m going to die, Jerry thought over and over. But he didn’t die. The monster nicely placed Jerry on the ground of the forest floor.
Tubby.
“What?” Jerry asked, only to realize that nobody had said anything. The thought had just come to his mind. “I must be going crazy,” he said shakily.
Tubby.
Jerry had no idea what was going on. He looked at the monster. “You're not saying that, are you?” No response. “Is your name Tubby?” Jerry asked. Still no response. Jerry decided that he had to be dreaming, so he pinched himself. Or so he tried, but he couldn’t move at all. He deduced the monster must be talking through his mind, and that it was keeping him in place with its telekinesis. “What do you want from me?” Jerry asked.
Freedom.
Jerry was so surprised that the monster had responded he actually jumped. Wait. He actually jumped. Jerry could move again. Almost every logical part of his brain told him to go run back to his house and get help. But he decided otherwise.
“Freedom?” he asked Tubby. “What do you mean, Freedom?”
Stuck.
Jerry looked down to see that Tubby was chained to the ground. “Can’t you free yourself? You have telekinesis.”
Stuck.
If Tubby wanted to kill Jerry he would’ve already right? So Jerry reluctantly grabbed a stick and tried to pick the lock, which of course didn’t work (Jerry didn’t really have much lockpicking experience, especially with a stick). He tried again and again. After what felt like an hour of trying Jerry realized he was getting nowhere and decided to try a different approach. He hit the lock with rock, after rock, after rock. He then grabbed one of those sticks again and finally the lock clicked open. Tubby was free. Jerry could feel Tubby’s mood shift. But then Jerry realized he hadn’t thought this all the way through. What would he do now? Would the police want to take him in? He was thinking about all this when he felt the weird sensation in his body again. He was scared for a second, until he realized Tubby was pulling him in for a hug. He needed to find out how to make sure this monster never got chained up again.
He decided it was his mission to make sure that Tubby ended up being safe. Jerry wanted to make Tubby’s life as good as it could be, so the next day Jerry finally took the chance to ask his family if they could keep Tubby and make a safe home for him. It took a lot of convincing to finally let Tubby stay. Rubby told Jerry that the only way he could stay is if they created a little house outside of theirs for Tubby that he could live in and call “home”. Jerry and Tubby worked hard for days and weeks and eventually finished making the house.
Finally, both Jerry and Tubby had made a friend. The End.
