Paul & the Yellow Eyed Monster                    by: Paul G. Jutras

 

It was a day with nowhere to go and nothing to do. Missy found some paper, but nobody felt like cutting it. Kenny found some crayons. But nobody wanted to draw. If it was just Missy and Paul, Paul would of suggested Barbie Dolls or Tea Party. With the guys there, there was nothing much around to play with, except a ball of clay.

Paul rolled the clay in his hands. As he rolled it, the clay got softer and quite warm. Paul rolled it longer until it began to take the shape of a dragon. Something squeaked. "Hey, did you hear something?" said Paul to his friends.

"No, Missy hadn't heard anything. Neither did Kenny. Yet the more Paul shaped it, the more it seemed like the dragon itself was trying to say something. So Paul decided to make a mouth. That was when the dragon spoke.

"May I have some eyes please?"

Missy and Jason were so surprise they jumped. Kenny almost fell out of his chair and Paul dropped the dragon on the table. Feeling sorry for him, he drew two nice little eyes for him. Yellow eyes. The dragon looked himself over and asked where he was.

"This is Paul's house," said Missy as she notice the dragon looked unhappy. "You're in Ogunquit Maine. "It's a good place to be with good people to be with."

"What's wrong?" asked the children. "You're so sad. If there is anything you want, tell us and maybe we can help you."

"Maybe he's thirsty." Kenny thought as Paul poured some milk into the dish of his cat, Puff. Paul then put some food in the other bowl to see if he was hungry. The dragon just poked the bowls and looked sadly around.

Missy got an idea and decided to make the dragon look fancy in stripes and polka dots. She gave him a dandelion necklace and a paper hat. Paul held up a mirror and realized it wasn't what he really wanted after all. "Maybe I want something to play with."

So Paul got out his toys for the dragons to play with. A Maine Trucking Co truck, a souvenir of Ogunquit pail and shovel and a multi-colored ball. The dragon tried to play, but he was too sad. "I'm sorry," he said. "I don't think that playing ball, riding a truck or shoveling sand is what I want to do. Maybe I want a place of my own. A place where I can hide and be alone."

Paul built a little house out of old birthday cards. If he was a dragon he thought that would be the type of house he wanted to live in. But the dragon still looked sad. "That's a very good house, he said. "Maybe I need some sleep."

"It is getting kind of late." Missy agreed as she gathered her some. Kenny, Jason and her all decided to call it a night as they went home.

It was darkest part of night. Kenny, private eye, screeched to a halt outside Paul's house. A CB unit went off: "CALLING PAUL JUTRAS! PAUL, COME IN." Kenny shut his CB off and ran to the front door of Paul's house. "Paul!" he shouted. "A monster is loose in Ogunquit."

"Calm down, Kenny." Paul told him. "There's no case we can't solve and no monster we can't catch."

"He knocks over garbage cans," said Kenny as Paul let him in. "He breaks branches off trees. He stares at people with his yellow eyes. That last part is why I came here. The dragon you made out of clay has yellow eyes."

Paul got into his detective disguise so nobody would recognize him. He put a mop on his head that made him look like he had female length hair in the dark, with dark glasses and a blanket. He wore gloves so that he wouldn't leave finger prints where ever they went.

"Hurry, Paul." Kenny said. "The clay dragon is gone and we have no time to lose."

"Are you sure the monster looks like a dragon?" asked Paul.

"No one knows what it looks like." said Kenny. "No one has clearly seen anything but the color of its eyes. You have to admit a piece of clay coming to life on the same day a monster is reported in town is odd."

Just then they looked up at the window, There were a pair of yellow eyes glowing in the darkness. Paul grabbed and missed. Kenny snatched at a rope it seemed to have , but the monster got away. "That's him!" Kenny shouted. "Grab it! After it!"

"That looked more like a monkey tail than a rope." Paul chased it into the closet but was force to stop as it threw stuff from the highest shelf. "It can't be that tiny dragon I made out of clay. To reach that high, it must be ten feet tall."

Paul ducked behind Kenny. What would Missy do if she was here? Would Jason be scared? Was all Paul thought as he pulled out a box of powder. He shook the powder in the air and let it land on the ground as the creature took off. The footprints started out big and then got smaller.

"Do you see that?" Kenny gasped. "Big feet and Little feet. How's that possible?"

"What's worst is that the monster is trying to wreak the place." Paul got out a kitchen knife as Kenny held his bee-bee gun. They followed the prints to the bathroom, which was a total mess. "With the powder we'll soon have it cornered. He can't get away."

Just as Kenny pulled the shower curtain aside, WHOOSH went the monster. "After him before he flies away." He shouted to a confused Paul as they entered Paul's room. Kenny just looked at Paul in shock to see nylons, bras, skirts and other female clothes scattered among Paul's normal stuff.

"No wonder you wear a mop as part of your disguise." Kenny giggled. "Makes you feel more female, huh."

Paul just took off back to the search and back to the kitchen. It was already a mess. The monster ate everything, including Puff's food."The Ogunquit police will probably reward us if we can capture this thing. " Paul said as they saw it even messier than the rest of the house. "The thing must get hungrier and hungrier."

The two began to think. The monster was tall and big, but had the ability to shrink in size. He was hungry and could fly. They had to get it before it got them. Kenny turned on his CB unit once again.

 

MONSTER ALERT!

PREPARE FOR DANGER. CITIZENS OF OGUNQUIT MAINE

BE ON FULL ALERT. SPECIAL FRIENDS OF PAUL, TAKE CARE.

MISSY, JASON AND MICHAEL STAY INSIDE!

 

The police questioned Paul and Kenny all the next day. An artist made pictures of what the monster might look like. A news team came with a camera crew to interview the two. That night the six 'O clock news asked for everyone to stay inside.

The phone rang with Missy on the line. "Why not catch the monster in a net?"

The phone rang a second time. "Why not cover up a big hole for it to fall into," Jason suggested.

Then Paul got an idea. He got a big crate from the basement and propped it up with a board and rope. Kenny just shook his head. "It won't work. It can't work. I mean, even in a cartoon it doesn't work to catch an animal."

With the trap set up, the two hid and waited. A half hour later a knock came on the door. Paul answered it and found Michael. "What are you going here? The police want everyone to stay in their homes."

"That was before I saw the light." Michael said. Paul turned to the window when Michael pointed and saw a light that was more than just another star. The light blinked three times and flew in through the window. It was a flying saucer the size of a toy model.

"Hi!" Came a pink creature with yellow eyes no bigger than an apple. "My name is Pink. I need some help finding a friend of mine. I tracked him to this house and I'm afraid I made quite a mess searching for him. We came looking for someone to fix a machine on our planet."

"Watch out, it could be some sort of trick." Kenny said. Paul knew that if his friends wouldn't do anything, he would help Pink himself."

"Pink." A familiar voice got the attention of all of them. The clay dragon climbed onto the table. "I was so sad to be all alone of this planet."

"Green." Pink smiled as they gave one another a hug. He then turned toward Paul and dropped something on the floor. A spacesuit inflated to full size. "The ship can grow in size like the ship, so you can get in and fix the machine on our planet."

Paul wasn't sure what he could do, but he found a can of oil and put on the spacesuit. The next moment, Pink, Green and Paul was high over Highland Avenue and then Ogunquit itself. The country and then the world. They were pass the moon and the farthest planets.

The machine was not only big, but the mechanical planet itself. As they landed a series of multi color aliens greeted them. They all looked as sad as the clay dragon. Paul started to work with squirting oil all over the machine. A drop in a hole here and a joint there. Suddenly it started up.

The machine began to hum and glow with the same type of light as Pink's saucer. All the creatures cheered their hero. "Hooray for Paul!" They cried as Pink explained the machine could do anything. Create anything they needed.

As the hum stopped, nothing happened. The creatures were all sad again. Paul thought of how the glow reminded him of Pink's ship. "Pink, how does you ship work?" Paul asked.

"I don't," he answered. "I just wish to go somewhere and it takes me."

"How simple." Thought Paul. "How easy. And he wished for a few things he wanted like pink slippers and a new ball to play with. Suddenly the machine whirled to life and there they were. Pink wished for ice cream for all of them and they got it. The wonderful wishing machine worked after all.

Before Paul was brought back home, Pink made a special wish that he wouldn't tell Paul what it was. Paul just smiled as they passed comets and planets to go back to earth where Paul went to sleep.

When Paul woke up the next morning he immediately knew there was something wrong. As he moved he felt stiff all over. However his arms and legs slid over the sheets of the bed with no friction at all. What was that mysterious woman who the mirror showed in bed with him now. Why could he feel long hair resting on his shoulders when he knew his hair was short.

After putting on a bra and panties, Paul could only make it as far as the door before his new feminine body solidified completely. Panic stuck him as he realized he could no longer move. He was trapped. Stuck in the form of a pretty young woman, no longer a real person. More mannequin than human.

"The aliens must of read his mind about wanting a perfect female body." Paul thought in his frozen state. "The most perfect girls Pink saw in his search for Green must of been those in the department store windows. Now I'm one of them."

Paul's friend never saw Paul again. Though the knew of the alien, they never really knew what became of him. After awhile the police gave up their search for him. For Paul, he was sold to a department store where he got to wear the latest fashions and best female clothes each year.

THE END.

 

© 2000
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