Goblin

A childs tale

Goblin

Watch him run, he is too quick. Through your cupboards and under a bed. Unstoppable. He finds his way outside to wrestle a wolf, to climb the bars of a swing set and peer over the edge of the world that surely stays visible as long as you are eight feet off the ground.

“Tonight is a lunar eclipse.” thought the goblin.

Though he thought it pronounced as “loooner e-clips”.

Ready is the goblin, prepared and steadfast in the nearing of such a perfect and meaningful cosmological event. If monsters could be anxious, this is as close as one could get.

He swings back into the castle, he is a wisp of wind around its walls. Hugging them tightly as not be seen by guards or Goblin Catchers, the invader makes way to the kitchen. A snack to satiate the insatiable hunger of goblin!

The bottom shelf is where he finds them, the little treats in clear packaging, how nice of their owner to leave them unattended.

“Muhahahehe!”, cackled the goblin.

The rotten elf devoured three, and stuffed the plastic wrappers in his back pocket as not to leave a trail of evidence. He knows that a single mistake and he would find himself in a net, strung up and snared for the night; and tonight is very important.

* * *

The red haired human is one of particular opposition to the goblin. Mostly because they are best at spotting creatures of the fey, goblins and witches and all manner of trolls avoid gingers at all cost. Particularly ghastly is one who has just woke from a nap.

This human is a girl, and she stumbled and grumbled (as recently arisen gingers tend to do) her way to her kitchen.

“What are you doing?”

Crouching by the cabinet the goblin was discovered. His white globular eyes opened wide as the last cake was pressed into his mouth with a hobbled index finger. He hissed at her, in an attempt to scare the human, but this goblin had past run-ins with the human and the girl wouldn't turn away.

“I'm telling mom.”

The goblin frowned. He remembered that he is a boy. One lucky enough to have two parents- and a watchful sister- and these parents would surely find him guilty of “snacking before dinner”; especially hidden snacking on treats that belonged to his mother.

In an attempt at earning pity, he boy gathered his dog from the back yard and took him to the hearing that would be held in the living room. Hopefully, the puppy-dog eyes and the sorry-goblin eyes would lessen the punishment.

“You took the cakes and ate them?”

“Yes ma’am.”, said the boy, who's eyes couldn't have been more pitiful.

“Go to your room for the night, you are too wound up.”

“But the e-clips! It's tonight!”, he pleaded.

“You can watch it, if you don't cause any more trouble. You know not act like that.”

The goblin straightened up, his hunched back crackled and popped as he regained his posture. Pose as a gentleman for a few hours and gain the right to watch the moon glow red? A simple sham for the goblin, one he will be proud to complete.

The goblin smiled a satisfied, toothy grin at the ginger as he passed her. Still grumpy, she sneered and went for the glass of milk she originally sought out.

In his confinement, the goblin went mad! To creatures of the fey, an hour of captivation and seclusion translates into a surreal eternity! Why was there no clock on the wall? Why has the goblin never snagged a watch from the townsfolk? Through his window he sees the sun tick slowly toward the mountains where other goblins roam free and terrorize chickens and dance with coyotes. He will join them during the eclipse. Get a deep sense of Goblin Oneness. He knows this.

* * *

Lifetimes must have past before nightfall, but the goblin received his prison supper and was soon invited to see the moon change into a red beast.

The four of them went outside to the back yard; Mom, Dad, Sister, and their goblin prisoner.

It was just beginning! He could see the moon moving slowly to it's highest point as the edges of its surface began to glow with a bright white light. He was in awe.

He looked around at their faces with his goblin's mouth open and happy and full of snaggling teeth. They didn't share his enthusiasm. How could they not? Here was an event of a scale immeasurable size by comparison to tiny humans and smaller goblins. The perfect alignment of sun, earth and moon.

He thought, “It's perfect remember?”

Some were too young, others had seen too much. Either way, the goblin was alone in the face of magic. They went inside and so did the goblin, but just to get a garb more suiting of the weather, the moon was almost in its final phase. He was stopped at the door on his way out, an unexpected blockade.

“Time for bed.”

He was a boy again, and a sobbing one at that. It is almost full, almost finished.

“You have school in the morning. There will be others, it is just to late.”

The goblin went to his bunk above the ginger, exhausted, but wide-eyed in his anticipation of seeing the moon red.

He waited, half an hour, maybe more, and peeked into the living room. No humans there! And below him on the bottom bunk, the child ginger was asleep, mouth open and eyes fluttering open and closed in tiny slits.

“Even asleep they still watch.”, chuckled the goblin.

He remained dressed in bed, and got up quietly, his feet touched down with feathery lightness. The goblin couldn't afford his sloppy mistakes of earlier in the evening. He cracked the back door and slipped outside, then tucked his body next to the house as to be undetectable to window sentries.

The eclipse was upon him. He locked gaze with the moon, and it stared back.

It seemed to speed up as it met its final destination, full and perfect red.

He imagined that the moon was a boy pretending to be a goblin, and that moment will mean more to him later.

He grabbed the paws of his wolf and did a dance on the concrete yard. He transformed into a full goblin, one who left his boyhood asleep in a bunk-bed.

He wanted to howl, but instead he closed his eyes and howled with his imagination, it was as real as his goblin skin.

* * *

In the morning the boy walked to the kitchen, his parents already up and dressed. He was aching from insufficient sleep, and reeling from a night that still held his thoughts tightly.

His parents had the news on the television, with a video of last nights eclipse playing a the top of the hour.

“See son, it turned red, then went away.”

He looked at the screen for a moment.

He said, “Yep, that's all it did.”

If you never take a risk when you can, how well will you fare at risk when you must?

Reviews

[Carri]

This tale reminds me of 2 little children that I raised. I can relate to the story, my son especially had a vivid imagination. I can see this as a story that he would act out. It kept me intrested and a want to finish reads. Loved, loved, loved the single last sentence.