A SurfWriter Girls Halloween Story
By SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel
Whenever
Halloween is near SurfWriter Girls Sunny and Patti remember that eerie
night in Seal Beach years ago at The River's End Cafe. The restaurant is
gone now, but the haunting memories still linger...
“Whose
bright idea was it to hold this meeting on Halloween?” Seth demanded to
know. “I’ve got trick-or-treat
candy at home to give out.”
“Don’t
look at me,” said Jeff. “Paul Lushon from the Beach Cities Disposal
Committee said it was tonight or nothing. And Surfrider needs his vote
on the plastics initiative.”
“He can be a real pain,” Tony added, looking out at the waves breaking in front of The River’s End Café.
Watching the waves churn, he knew that more trash would be washing up on the beach and along the San Gabriel River.
Turning to Sunny, he said, “Make sure you get everything in the minutes.”
Sunny
nodded her head and dutifully wrote in her notebook: Surfrider Foundation Huntington Beach/Seal Beach
Chapter Special Meeting – Rise Above Plastics Initiative – October 31st.
Just
then Paul Lushon poked his pale, bespectacled face into the doorway of
the café. “So, everyone made it,” he said, looking around. “Let's get down to business.”
Jeff
started. “It’s all there in the proposal. This initiative will help get
rid of the plastic littering our beaches – the bags, cups,
straws, and other junk.”
“We
picked up 100 pounds of trash at the last beach cleanup,” said Gilbert.
“I don’t know about you, but I’d rather be surfing. Let’s ditch the
plastics!”
“Not
so fast,” Paul Lushon said, raising a fleshy hand. “Take away plastic
straws and the fast-food places will complain. Besides, people like plastic cups and all the cars have cup holders. What’s a little
plastic, anyway?”
“It’s more than a ‘little,’” said Patti, giving him a look. “Haven’t you heard of the Bag Monster?”
“That’s
right,” Sunny chimed in. “Beware the Bag Monster! Researchers found
that all the plastic waste each person throws away is enough to make a
giant monster.”
“That’s not my problem,” Paul Lushon retorted, rolling his eyes.
“It’s
everyone’s problem,” Patti told him. “Plastics are injuring the sea
life. Some of the fish and birds are even evolving into strange
mutations.”
“And everything's getting into the food chain,” Seth pointed out.
“Like I care,” Paul Lushon snorted. “I don’t eat fish.”
“Well, you drink water, don’t you?” Norma asked. “The PVCs in the plastics aren’t doing that any good.”
“That’s
for sure,” Manny agreed. “Surfrider has been working hard to keep the
beaches from becoming one big plastics' dumping ground.”
"Maybe some plastic on the beach is the price we pay for progress." Paul Lushon said in a snide tone of voice. “In the real world
people have to work for a living and can’t just surf all day.”
Tony could see that this wasn’t going anywhere. "So, what’s your recommendation to the committee going to be?”
“What’s my recommendation going to be?” Paul Lushon repeated, enjoying putting these surfers in their place. He answered with a sarcastic laugh, “Let’s just say you’re getting a trick tonight, no treats.”
Then, turning around, Paul Lushon went out the door and started across the dark parking lot to his car.
The
wind was picking up and he could hear the waves pounding. He heard
something else, too…a sort of rustling, squishy sound…coming from behind
him.
Paul Lushon peered into the darkness…and saw a huge shadowy form hurtling toward him beneath an eerie full moon.
Before
he could identify the gruesome sight, it was towering over him – a
translucent, squid-like abomination more frightening than his worst
nightmares. The gigantic writhing mass was a tangle of plastic bags,
cups, bottles, straws, and God knows what else.
Staring
down at him with soulless eyes, the creature gave off a horrible foul
smell like something rotten that had been dragged in from the sea.
The
odor alone almost overwhelmed Paul Lushon as he fumbled with the car
door handle and tried to get inside. But, the oozing horror was pressing
against him, pulling him close.
Mesmerized by the black and orange eyes staring down at him, Paul Lushon could feel himself being drawn toward his captor’s gaping, red slash of a mouth.
Struggling to make sense out of what was happening, he suddenly remembered Sunny’s warning to “Beware the Bag Monster.”
Then,
just before the gaping mouth closed around him and sucked him inside
the swirling darkness, Paul Lushon heard a rasping voice in his ear:
“You’ve been recycled.”
Happy Halloween!!!
SurfWriter Girls Sunny & Patti
http://www.surfwritergirls.blogspot.com
Sunny
Magdaug and Patti Kishel hold the exclusive rights to the following
copyrighted material. For permission to reprint or excerpt it and/or
link it to another website, contact them at surfwriter.girls@gmail.com
