The Old Man And The Sea Monster

By Shane Alexander Greenhough

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2012 Shane Alexander Greenhough

Robert Dukes leaned back into his deck chair to begin what had, in recent months, become an all-day routine – a packet of Lay’s sour cream & onion rested in his lap.
The fishing would still have been good in these parts, were it not for that damnable sea monster. A grumble rose in his throat at the thought.
He let his eyes glide along the water’s surface.
He shoved a too-large crisp into his mouth.
He crunched.
He sighed.

“What are you waiting for, Pa?” asked Charlie, the Owens’ boy. He sat, his feet dangling over the edge of the wooden pier out back of Robert’s house, looking up at the old man watching the lake.

Charlie liked Robert. He was like a grouchier Popeye - a curmudgeonly sailor or a weathered fisherman. No, not a fisherman – a sailor for sure. Charlie remembered a comment his dad had made about how old Mister Dukes had once referred to a fishing rod as, “just a damned inconvenient way to catch dinner.”
Definitely not a fisherman then.

“I’ve told you a thousand times, boy. I’m waiting for the sea monster.”