Coming to the Surface

Writober 2025: Day Nineteen Sea Monsters>Response Post

🔗Links in the Table of Contents are Jump links to my responses to each of the challenges
🐦‍⬛This is original work created by Maria L. Berg and this post counts as copyright. All rights reserved.

🎃OctPoWriMo 🦇Writober Flash Fiction 👻Halloween Photography Challenge

Today’s Theme: Sea Monsters

These are my responses to the prompt post for Day 19 of Writober: In the Dark Wet Deep

OctPoWriMo

Coming to the Surface

Some days the water is so clear
I can see each rock at the bottom.
Every pattern, texture, and color
blurs slightly as ripples wrinkle
the surface then clarify again.
But today the water is steel-
gray, opaque and threatening
revealing nothing of the dark
wet deep. It’s raining at a slant
but around here that won’t frustrate
the fishermen. Even in thunder
and lightning there is always
a boat on a Sunday with lines
in the water awaiting a bite.
Today’s the perfect day for
a curious shadow to surface
a slight bump under a hull
causing rocking that makes
a man instinctively hold
onto the rail, pull his pole
in tight and wonder how
large a big mouth bass
can get. After a few breaths
a soaking wet boater might
wonder if some rich, bored
kid was playing a prank
with some hugely expensive
new toy and might worry
that if he said anything
he’d be on a viral video
by the time he got home.
Today’s the kind of day
when the wind picks up
to a wave-crashing roar
that makes it easy to imagine
something alive and threatening
hides in the deepest depths
dark and beyond our reach
a monster that rises to the surface
with intermittent curiosity
or every once in a while
when it’s really hungry.

Writober Flash Fiction Challenge

Ignorance Was Bliss

When Edna had suggested this RV road trip to visit the little chapel by the lake where they were married, she thought it would rekindle their romance. She never imagined the soundtrack would be conservative talk radio or her husband’s grunts of, “What do you want from me? I’m trying to drive here.” Nor did she imagine a constant perfume of coffee, beef jerky, and flatulence. After the first night parked at a KOA which turned out to be an overly-lit parking lot surrounded by used car lots and strip malls where Ernie was delighted to hook up to cable TV so he could get the stock report and yell at the “News” all night, Edna felt more alone in her marriage than ever. To Ernie every roadside attraction was a waste of time and money, every scenic outlook was a waste of gas, and any restaurant other than a roadside diner was an attempt to destroy his digestive system. By the third day as they approached the little lakeside chapel where they had sworn to love each other forever, Edna was wearing headphones and listening to the latest in the Trembling Hearts series. She was kind of rooting for the woman to dump the guy. She was getting sick of happy endings. Suddenly the RV stopped. Ernie was pointing out the window and yelling something at her. Edna removed her headphones. 

“We’re here,” Ernie said.

“But we can’t be,” said Edna. The place was completely abandoned. The lake where they and their guests had jumped in the water after the ceremony, was gone, leaving only a muddy puddle in front of a delapidated old chapel, crooked on its foundation, white paint chipped and peeling, faded to gray.

“There you have it,” said Ernie. “Not exactly how I remember it.”

“No. Not at all.”

Ernie farted. “Well, might as well get out and stretch our legs.”

Edna had to agree. 

As they walked toward the chapel Ernie pointed out some bones in the mud. “Look at that. What in the world do you think that could have been?”

The skull was bigger than both their heads combined. They could have slept curled up in the ribcage. Edna had never seen anything like it. 

“Hey, Edna.” Ernie put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close. He kissed her temple and said, “Remember after the ceremony and we shluffed off our wedding duds and jumped in that lake all naked and you said you felt something rub up against you, and I joked I was just happy to see you. You think?”

Edna looked at the bones and shivered. “Let’s head home. I’ll even drive so you can rest for a while.”

Ernie eyed her skeptically. “Guess I could take a nap.”

Halloween Photography Challenge

I had so much fun capturing Bigfoot outside, I thought I would try to capture a lake monster sighting. To do that, I cut a paper filter of a surfacing head and body then used tiny feathers for texture. I strung string-lights on the porch and took photos through them at the water. In the past, my attempts to create Sea Monster filters turned out very cartoonish. Today’s results are more what I’ve been trying for: those blurry, shadowy possibilities of the yet known.