The Monsters of Cove Creek

Before bedtime my son and I took the canoe out. High water from a week of heavy rains gave us an opportunity explore where we hadn't previously, and to escape into our imaginations. On the far side of the lake there is a triangle of shallow water that extends into the woods: The Cove. The cove is where the Monster Fish hunt. We paddled back into the cove, hoping to startle one from the lake bottom, to feel the displaced water rock our canoe. As we paddled to the back of the cove, we realized water was still flowing out of the woods into the lake. A tiny creek, usually a dry bed, was almost to the top of its banks. 

We decided to paddle to its source. The channel grew narrow, and the thick grass grew high from its banks, blocking our view to the right and left.  The creek made a sharp bend and then the trees enveloped us. The entire way my son peppered me with questions. 

"Are we in the woods, Dad?"

"There are not monsters in the woods, right Dad?"

"Is hate a bad word, Dad?"

"Are there snakes here, Dad?"

"Can I say I hate snakes, Dad?"

"Only dragons breath fire, right, not dragonflies, right, Dad?"

I was focused on my unrealistic hope that the creek would spill out into another lake, or Big Cedar Creek.....or Narnia, so I gave a short answer to each question. 

"Yes, of course."

Before the creek reached Narnia, it ended, predictably, in a mudbank. Feeling a little silly for indulging my imagination and wasting time, I paddled back to the lake to resume teaching my son to bass fish with a jig and plastic worm, an activity that is most definitely not a waste of time.  He wanted to fish from the Big Rock.

When I looked at him later he had set his Buzz Light Year pole down, pulled several feet of line from the reel, and taken the plastic worm from the weighted jig. He stood on the rock and with great concentration threw the jig over and over at a passing dragon fly, pulling the line back in, hand over hand, with each miss. In his mind he was a knight, protecting his castle from the dragon that flew over his moat. 

"That monster is trying to get us. Do you think I can catch him like this, Dad?"

I smiled, lost in his imagination. 

"Yes, of course."

Video evidence of the monster fish.