06/05/2018

"Mister Monster! Mister Monster guess what! I wrote a story today at school! Do you wanna hear it?" A tiny girl clambers up onto the giant beasts knee. She's had experience, what with the forest as her backyard, and the Monster's not much different from a tree.

He nods his head very slowly, his mouth upturning into a smile.

"Yay! I drew pictures too but you gotta wait 'till after the story to see 'em!" She clears her throat, and holds her paper at arms length. "My Monster. By Joanne. My Monster is a nice Monster. He doesn't hide in closets 'cause he's waaaaaay too big!" She turns the page, making sure to look professional. "My Monster is nice and lets me climb on him. He doesn't like being scary so he lives in the forest. My Monster is the best Monster ever!" She looks up proudly at him. "The end! Do you wanna see pictures too?" His head nods again.

"Good!" She shuffles through her papers, picking one up and holding it up to him. He gently grabs it in his giant hand, holding it up to his face. His smile gets bigger as he looks at it. It's him, sitting down with the girl standing on his head. He has a big grin on his face, and there are exactly three trees behind them. There's a bird in the corner, flying, and the sun is in the other corner.

The Monster nods, handing the drawing back to the girl.

"Do you like it?" He smiles again.

"Yay! You're the first person I told my story because teacher is mean and she says that I shouldn't make pretend about monsters cause monsters are scary! But you're not scary and I don't make pretend about you but teacher says I shouldn't got pretend friends and that I shouldn't lie about seeing monsters cause I could make someone get super scared. But I don't lie about you, Mr. Monster! So I didn't show her my story cause she's mean!" The little
girl finishes off her rant with a huff.

The Monster smiles gently again at her story.

"But you'll always be with me Mr. Monster! Cause you're super awesome!" His hand moves from its position on the ground and moves toward her. It stops right before her legs, and she looks up at him. "You want me to get on?" He nods. After she steps onto his hand it rises, up to the top of his head.

"Woohoo! This is awesome! Lookit how tall I am, Mr. Monster!" She laughs, a clear, sweet sound, and he smiles.

"Oh, yeah! Here's the other drawing I made!" He puts his hand out, and the girl drops it in. It's another drawing of the two of them, side by side and at the bottom there are two words written in messy print.

Frends forever!