Member-only story
Changing Times
The Lake Michigan monster struggles to adapt to changing times and the loss of the Great Lakes.
When the Great Lakes began disappearing the monsters packed their bags and moved to the cities. The last was the Lake Michigan monster, Mitchie, a name he detested, so obviously modeled on his infamous cousin Nessy. Never having lived elsewhere and being a bit agoraphobic besides, Mitchie was determined to stay. He stuck it out even after the water was gone and the lake bed was nothing more than a dry, cracked basin. He moved into the roomiest ship that had sunk in the former depths and bought blackout curtains, a children’s ocean-wave nightlight projector and an aquarium.
But then came the adventurers, scavengers, people with metal detectors, trophy hunters. They were followed by tour buses filled with excited sightseers armed with maps of Great Lake monster celebrity homes. The flashes from their cameras gave Mitchie migraines and the constant honking intended to make him look out upset his digestion.
Finally, he gave in, packed what he could carry, donned his headphones and while listening to his psychoanalyst voicing words of encouragement, stepped beyond the lake bed. He thought he might like belonging to a child but as there were no closet or under-the-bed vacancies, he found an apartment in a crowded…
