The Talking Green Monster

THE TALKING GREEN MONSTER


After midnight passed, the household was already in total darkness and absolute silence, where not a single cry from a mocking bird can be heard even distance away from which we reside. Everybody was asleep; the kids got to sleep before my wife had a chance to sing them a lullaby, something she often does every single day, and the family's only chihuahua fell asleep on its back inside its small home--we decided to let the dog sleep inside since the climate at this moment of time became more and more colder, so much to avoid bringing the dog to his veterinarian if he gets sick.

Laying inert in bed with my mind wandering freely, my moments of peace would occasionally be interrupted by my wife's heavy snoring. I bore the urge of distracting her to stop the snoring sound but chose not to, which would only wake her up. I stayed motionless, unable to sleep due to whatever the causes that had put me into this insomniac state.

It was already one in the morning, and still wasn't asleep. I fought the urge not to think of anything, but my mind would persist only to prevent it from being bored. All of a sudden, a creaking sound coming from our bedroom's door came, causing my wife to swirl to the opposite direction--her snoring had stopped right after the creaking sound but later came back to a more violent tone. I rose up to check the doorway and realized that the door was open. I minded not the door, so I reverted my position and tried to ignore the obnoxious, irregular tune from her snoring.

Momentarily, before letting my mind wander again, I became alarmed as my heart raced at a faster rate when something suddenly lay its tiny hand on my arm. I turned to make out the figure and became relief when it was none other than a human hand. Complete darkness loomed in the room, which made it impossible to tell who it was without any source of illumination. But when the dark figure spoke, I knew then that it was my youngest daughter, Lin.

"I'm scared," Lin muttered, as to not wake up my wife. "There's a green monster in my closet."

The moment she mentioned the green monster, I felt a slight sense of anger and foolishness. Why did it had to happen at this particular time I don't know. But I reminded myself that this was one of those horrific experience that many children face at some point in their childhood experience; not one person on this planet has never experienced bad dreams or witnessed a green monster or something that is about run and capture that person. I had those kinds of experience when I was seven.

I got off from bed as carefully as possible, searched for the flashlight that we kept in the drawer, and held Lin's hand as we went to her bedroom.

As Lin pointed toward the closet without a word, she suddenly lost her grip from my hand and stepped back a moment. I whispered not to worry, but the message left no comfort as she still remained horrified. I slowly opened the closet, parting the hangers with Lin's clothes to both ends of the closet, and attentively inspecting as I followed the light-circle projecting from the flashlight. No sign of green monster. I turned off the flashlight and switched on the room's light. Again, I made another quick look not only in her closet but the entire room.

Still no sign of green monster, I went to Lin, who lingered on the same spot with a frightening look on her face, and knelt down while both arms wrapped around her.

I looked into her eyes and said, "It's okay, honey. No more green monster. It's gone now."

She shook her head and held me by the arm as tightly as she could, like someone who is trying to cling on to life in the midst of despair and catastrophic events that let to a substantial number of casualties. When I asked her if she wanted a warm glass of milk, a sudden change of expression came on her face as she let a wide smile surmounting her fear.

As soon as we reached the kitchen, Lin held my arm even tighter when a sound came from the kitchen; the sound evoked a sense of fear because it wasn't just any sound, it was discernible to a human's comprehension of sound recognition and more like a cry from a supernatural being. Holding the flashlight in my right hand more tightly, I switched the light of the kitchen on, and with utter surprise and shock, a figure stood before us by the fridge.

The figure was, how can I put it, more like what Lin had described it to be: a grotesque, disgruntled green monster with two large teeth so sharp enough that you could slice off legumes and other hard-like raw materials with absolute precision. We stood there motionless, eyes lingered on the green figure.
The monster seemed to be unaware of our presence, as it fed on some of the groceries my wife had brought today for next day's barbecue. After eating the last bit of the hot dog, the green monster turned to face us for a moment, and went through the fridge as to find something else to eat.

After a few seconds of silence, we became even more shocked and taken aback when the green monster started to talk.

"Why is it that you guys don't have spicy pork chop but only hot dogs and wings?" came the green monster. Its voice was deeper and aggressive than I would have imagined. After my eyes and Lin's met, the green monster began to eat a tuna sandwich contained in a lunch box. Great! That was my lunch for tomorrow's work.

"We planned on having barbecue," Lin finally spoke.

"What do you want?" I said, fearing the question would raise disappointment to the green monster.

"I was out of fuel," said the green monster. It was all he said and continued to indulge over the sandwich I have made.

Once the green monster has almost consume all the materials we needed for next day's barbecue, it approached to our direction. Surprisingly, the more it got closer to us the shorter it was; I presumed with certainty that it was 3 feet short, shorter than Lin. As it finally stood right before us, a repulsive smell filled in the kitchen; the smell was so powerful, not even Lin could hold her breath for a couple of seconds but to cough. Tears began to fill my eyes as the smell persist. Every time the monster opened its mouth and lifted it underarm, the smell would intensify.

The atmosphere in the kitchen became more of an aroma of poisonous gas mixed with other deadly substances emitted from the green monster.

When it stood not two feet away from us, I got a better point of view of its appearance: its tiny legs were fused in a way that was similar to penguins'. However, its toenails were somewhat new and sharpened, as if they were manicured not long ago. Its eyes and nose and ears were human-like forms, but there were several scratches and pimples. Its skin, fully green, was layered with salivary layers. Overall, given the first impression, it was an ugly creature or whatever one would could.

"I apologize that this took an unexpected turn," began the green monster. "When I'm out of fuel, my appearance begin to take form. I was once a beautiful star, but now I'm this." The monster stared at its hands for a moment. Lin and I remained silent. So the green monster continued.

"Though this is the second time in millennia that it's happening to me, my appearance becomes more and more unpleasant, apparently. I needed to refuel in order to get back to what you would call the 'solar system.'"

His claims had already begun to puzzle us. Before I tried to grasp what he was saying, Lin withdrew herself from me and came closer to the green monster. There was a huge difference in hight between the two, making Lin as the predominant figure.

"What is your name?" she said.

"Neptune!" said the monster with pride.

"You mean the star 'Neptune' that is the farthest planet from the sun in the solar system?" I interjected.

"That is correct." The green monster nodded.

Lin's eyes met mine, giving a confusing look that says what was Neptune. She was in third grade, so I didn't blame her for her genuine lack of knowledge, though she has a keen interest in astrophysics.

"So are you going back to where you belong?" asked Lin.

"That is correct," said the green monster. "Unless, of course, you both humans return to your sleep."

"I don't follow," I said, hoping to get a logical answer to this mysterious moment that I am experience.

"Not much can I say," said the green monster. "Everything would be back to normal the next day you rise, while I am up in space."

"How do we know you'll be home?" said Lin.

The green monster went to a nearby window in the living room while pointing at a particular direction in the sky. "As evening approaches the next day, you'll see a big star right next to this one," he said, making sure we were following the direction to which he was pointing. For a moment I thought I was dreaming, and would continue to believe so regardless of how vivid this moment of event was to the naked eye.

"Well," said the green monster, "time for both of you to get some sleep. Take care now."

After Lin waved goodbye to the monster, I carried her all the way to her room. Before I could put her in her bed, she was already asleep. I kissed her on the forehead and switched the light off on my way out. When I reached my bed before two in the morning, my wife was no longer snoring. I laid myself gently and suddenly fell asleep.

The next day my wife called out to me from the kitchen as I was on the verge of showering. So I hurried downstair and found her standing next to the fridge.
"What happened to the groceries?" said my wife. From that moment I remained frozen for no longer than a minute, not realizing that my wife was calling my name over several times. I tried recalling what had happened the other night. I mean, I did have a vivid memory of that night, but not even the slightest bit of hint was I inclined to believe such an event was actually happening. But now, with no more necessities for the barbecue, I was more shocked than ever! My heart remained at constant speed for a while and my body continued to perspire heavily.

"Honey, are you feeling okay?" said my wife.

"Huh...yeah," I said with uncertainty, "I was just trying to recall where I had stored the grill."

"Hey, have I brought something home for the barbecue yesterday?" she said.

"No," I lied, "not really."

She sighed and took a deep breath. "Then I'm taking the kids to the grocery while you start the grill," she said and I nodded. Before heading to the bedroom, she said, "Aren't you supposed to work today, and where's the sandwich you made for lunch?" Her reasonable questions became more and more of heavy burdens that I was not fit enough to overcome because I didn't want to continue lying, but knew I had to make sacrifices to avoid complications.

"I ate the sandwich by the time you feel asleep because I was starved," I said. She kissed me and left with the kids except Lin, who was too petite to help out with the heavy loads of groceries. After finishing showering and shaving, I went to her playground in the backyard to check upon her before leaving for work.
Playing with her lego figures, she looked at me and said, "Hi daddy!"

"Hi, honey," I said with a smile. "Was last night crazy or what?"

She showed a puzzling look and said, "What was crazy?"

Her response surprised me at first, but I began to quickly understand why.

"Oh, yeah," she began, "I had a dream about you and I meeting with the green monster."

"Well," I said, "tell me more about it when I get back from work, okay?" I kissed her on the forehead and, after telling my teenage daughter to keep a close watch on her, I left for work without having the green monster in mind.

After work we had a pleasant barbecue with unexpected guests and neighbors. It was already nine in the evening. People began to leave for home as me and my wife were talking about her snoring problem. It was unusual of her to snore, though it's not surprising that she has allergies that occur at some point due to climate change. When my wife reached out her right hand at full length and pointed to a big, beautiful star, I was filled with sudden amazement. So it is true. I never would have thought that such a bizarre event would occur to me. Everyone at the barbecue followed my wife's remark of the big star and were astonished by its brightness as it gleamed intensely. I lingered my eyes on Lin, who pretended as if what she had experienced last night was just a dream. I also preferred that she stays that way because her being ordinary put me at ease.