A story I wrote for the picture posted

Does anyone like to write short stories? I do and the way I make a story come to life is by looking at a picture first…then my mind conjures up the story. I have found so many cool pictures on the internet and each one with a story ready to be told. I will give you an example of one picture I found and then wrote up a short story about it. I hope you enjoy and leave me a comment so I can see if its worthy of my mind going to that place where it brings out the imagery and brings to life what the picture said to me.

Just a DREAM?

The dream started out pretty passive, but just before waking up it progressed into something scary and unreal.

There we were in a park exploring all the rides, exploring the paths thru the trees and grassy areas when we got to a sandy beach and noticed seashells exposed in the sand. Conches and starfish along with other variety of underwater creatures were laying there exposed to the hot sun. A smell of decay was already permeating the air around this sandy spot.

We looked around and didn’t notice any fish laying in the mess but as we walked the perimeter of this area, there they were. Laying on top of boards and rotting planks were the biggest fish we had ever seen. They were still alive and looked like they were waiting to jump into water that wasn’t there. Some of these creatures were exactly that; creatures of unknown origin because they didn’t look like fish at all. They had the characteristics of fish but almost prehistoric looking or maybe even alien.

Gloria pointed to the one funny looking animal sitting on a rotting wharf. “David, look at that thing! It almost looks like a snail covered in some kind of armor. What the hell is going on here? Have we been invaded by aliens? These creatures don’t look like stuff that belongs here.”

David looks towards where her finger is pointing and sees the snail thing. And agrees it does look alien. “I don’t understand it. We come here all the time for picnics and today it looks all alien and almost like we are on another planet. Did we time-travel or did things change drastically here?”

Gloria grabbed his hand and held on as tight as she could. He almost yelped from the pain but let her hold on because it gave him some security from the crazy stuff he was seeing.

We continued to walk around the sandy beach and all of a sudden out of the center came a loud roar. The ground shook beneath our feet and we scrambled away so not to be sucked into the sand. It looked like it was up-heaving something. As we fell backwards and landed on the soft grass, a wall of water came barreling out of the hole in the very middle of this dry pond.

As we watched, this water turned into a giant wave. “What the hell? Get up Gloria, lets run. We have to get away from this or we will for sure get sucked into that wave.” Grabbing her hand again, David pulled her up and they both started running away from the now not so dry pond.

The wave kept getting bigger and taller. It roared and churned and formed white foam around the edge. They kept watching over their backs as they ran as fast as their feet could pump, tripping on rocks suddenly exposed from the trembling ground.

The rumbling stopped as quickly as it began. All was deathly quiet. The breaking wave suddenly stopped growing and stood absolutely still. Eerie was an understatement. Four eyes watched as this roaring gushing water stopped moving and in a heartbeat was transformed into a still image.

As they watched, Gloria and David’s mouth opened wide and their eyes were glued to the uppermost curl of this tsunami wave. They were breathless from running from it but when the stillness penetrated their ears, both stopped and turned to look.

Only silence penetrated their ears and as they inched closer, they could see the fish and other creatures starting to move. They were winding their bodies for a leap into this still wave of water. Like a spring pulled, their bodies were expanding for that leap into the foam surrounding the wave.

Cracking and creaking of rocks grinding against one another suddenly broke the quiet. The noise was so intense, they both had to put their hands over their ears to withstand the pressure of the sounds. And it wasn’t just the rock noises; it was also tree roots moaning and screeching coming out of the ground forming trunks of a gnarled appearance.

Opposite them on the far bank, the two saw rocks being hurled into the air and landing down atop the weird looking tree trunks to form some sort of huts to house gnomes or other unearthly creatures. Soon all hell broke loose and the water that was so still and quiet came into life and began its inward motion. Pulling with it the sea creatures laying in the sand and as this began to happen, the fish bounced off their perches of rotting wood planks and leaped into this curl of the wave. The roaring water started to pull into itself as it made its decent back into the hole from whence it came.

As this was happening, Gloria and David felt a pull on their bodies. They were being sucked into this vortex of swirling water as it pulled all things around the pond into the spinning core. Their body was sliding along the grass and there was nothing to grab onto to stop their backward motion.

As they reach the abyss of death, the couple opens their eyes and find themselves scrambling on their bed with the blankets being pulled by the two dogs wanting them to awake and be fed. Barking and growling is going on around them as the two St. Bernard’s pull on each corner of the blanket as if a game.

Gloria starts to laugh as she wakes up to see the mutts playing and yanking on the blankets. Those 2 huge dogs wanted them up and did whatever they could to get them out of bed. David pulls the dogs up on the bed with them to quiet them down as he tries to awaken from a nightmare. Looking over at Gloria, he sees the same look in her eyes as he feels.

“Did you dream last night?” he asks. Gloria looks over at him and says “Yeah, I did, but it was more of a nightmare. Water and waves and alien creatures. YOU?” He looks at her and nods. “Yup, crazy shit and I am glad it was only a dream. I would have hated to be there in the real.”

Thinking about last night, no wonder they had such a nightmare, she remembers the meal they had just before going to bed. David had concocted a meal for them both and he piled each of their plates and they ate and ate until they could hardly breath. This meal was causing hallucinations while they slept and the dreams became reality until Keera and Kyle decided to break in and want their breakfast.

Both lay there and let the nuzzling of the soft wet noses sooth their frazzled nerves. But why did they both dream the same thing? What was in that food? Hmmm….must have been the sea salt and exotic spices that David had leached from ocean water and picked up at the food fair. Better get rid of it all so this doesn’t happen again!