Champy

Part Two

It was the first Friday in August, the day before our village's annual Champ Day. Freddy was Fifteen at the time, and we used to always take our wooden row-boat out on Lake Champlain to go fishing. Well, on this day, we decided to take the boat out to do exactly that, considering that was our favorite pastime as kids. We had been out on the boat for not even a half an hour when we saw something strange under the surface. It looked sort of like a snake, except at the same time, something about it was different. It was long, green, and scaly, and about ten feet out from our boat. Not to mention the fact that it was about as thick as a tree trunk. This both terrified and fascinated me. Lake Champlain is a fresh water lake that's 125 miles long, and up to 300 feet deep. There was no doubt in me that something unusual could be hiding in there. I immediately thought, "What if that's Champy?" and Freddy was thinking the exact same thing. He told me about how famous we could be in town if we got our names on the Champy sightings board, and I was filled with excitement. My frustration about the fact that we hadn't caught any fish that day meant nothing to me anymore. I had experienced something far more intriguing now.

When we got home that afternoon, Freddy was thrilled to explain everything in detail to our mother, who acted as interested as possible for someone who was clearly unconvinced by his story. It was so typical of her to shrug things off as "just a silly story" whenever my brother or I explained weird things that happened in Port Henry. It was too small of a place for her to believe that anything out of the ordinary could possibly occur.

"Whatever, Mom. I'm telling you the truth about what we saw, whether you believe me or not," he had said. She just laughed a little and shrugged at this while she said, "Okay, Freddy. Whatever you say." Then she poured us glasses of our favorite iced tea, and set out some grilled cheeses for lunch.