notes on getting grown

with monsters

One of the scariest parts about turning from child to older is the expectation that you will know where you are going. One monster leaves her legs behind before flying. Another can be kept from finding itself again by a sprinkle of salt.

Spend long enough studying these things and eventually you stop asking whether they’re real and start asking different questions.

Where is the nearest river?
How much water is left?
Where are the birds going now?

The Vetala prefers fresh bodies because they still know how to speak.
Fill the bathtub before the water pressure drops.
Kelpies cry before storms.
If lost, leave footprints in mud or snow.

Distress signals come in threes.
Most demons look ordinary.
Emergency flashlights are hanging from the shower hooks.

Turn your ears toward distant sounds like a cat.
Three syllable words work best.
Project your voice:

Internet.
Coconut.
Spaghetti.

Author: Stacey C. Johnson

I keep watch and listen, mostly in dark places.

6 thoughts on “notes on getting grown”

  1. Mark Wade – I make photographic art in many forms....without adherence to any philosophical tyranny. Love to paint, mixed media 2D pieces at my leisure. Still working on some pieces that have evolved over a period of years. Art for me is not on the clock (mostly). Sites that do not show up with GRAVATAR for some reason: FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/bluemarblearts/ Deviantart: https://www.deviantart.com/markus43 REDBUBBLE: https://www.redbubble.com/people/markus43/shop PRINTS: https://bluemarblephotography.smugmug.com/
    Mark Wade says:

    yes, spaghetti caps it beautifully

  2. chrisnelson61 – Stourbridge, UK – Chris Nelson was born in East Anglia, but grew up in Birmingham when his family relocated when he was still a young child. After leaving school he studied computing at what was then Wolverhampton Polytechnic, before deciding that it was not a career path he wanted to follow. He retrained as a teacher and has taught in a primary school in Dudley since the mid 1980's. He has dabbled in writing short stories since his youth, but has began writing more seriously since the turn of the century. He lives in Stourbridge with his wife and two children.
    chrisnelson61 says:

    So much we lose.

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