Champy

Part Three

The next day was the annual Champ Day parade, and Freddy and I were nearly overflowing with anticipation. When we had arrived, Champy was everywhere. There were balloons shaped like him, or rather, a cartoon-like version of him, since he was a symbol of our village. How could you have a scary town mascot? Also, he was darn cute as a little happy lake monster, I have to admit. There were treats you could buy, and typical American food items like burgers or hot dogs. Everyone was smiling – even Mr. and Mrs. Matthews had wide grins on their faces, and they were known for being grumpy. Typically, our mother wouldn't bother talking much to our neighbors, but that day she was conversing up a storm with everyone as if they hadn't seen each other in years and they had so much to catch up on. You know, the typical Mom talk. There's just something about Champy that brings people together here.

Back then, it made sense to me. Champy was our hero. He was the reason we were even on the news in the first place. Living on Lake Champlain isn't what made us stand out, considering there were plenty of other towns that touch the shore due to its enormous size. It was the fact that Champy was seen so many times in our area, by so many people, which brought us together, and gave our home a name to the public.

While we were at the parade, Freddy and I ran into my best friends Ricky and Sam. They were both my age, and we had been friends since grade school. They've been some of the best friends I've ever had, but I haven't seen them in a while considering they moved out of Port Henry after college.

"Ricky! You'll never believe what we saw in the lake yesterday!" Freddy had exclaimed.

"We'll see about that, little buddy. Do tell!" Ricky was always nice to Freddy, which I appreciated more than he knew.

"Well, we were fishing," he said, "and out of nowhere, Lucas sees something funny in the lake. He goes, 'Hey Freddy, check it out,' and points about ten feet to his left." I remember that he was getting more excited as he explained, "So I looked over, and there it was!"

"There what was?" Sam then asked, interested at that point.

"There was a wide, green, scaly thing. It looked like a snake, but it definitely wasn't," and that's when he paused. I could tell the boys were dying to hear more, but Freddy had some fun making them wait. "It was Champy!"

"Nah, you're crazy," Sam had said. It made sense to me that Ricky was more excited, since he had always wanted to see Champy for himself.

That's when Ricky went, "We should go and find him! If you guys saw him just yesterday, then he's probably still hanging around, don't you think? Maybe he'll be willing to show himself again for us," which of course sounded like a fantastic idea to the rest of us. I had secretly wanted to once again feel the adrenaline rush associated with seeing something that I couldn't exactly explain. I was more than in.