Member-only story
Short fiction — a chance encounter with a fae being, older than time…
I’ve always walked too close to water. I’d trail behind my mother and siblings, entranced by the way sunlight turned to gold on the surface, and then get yelled at for being too slow.
“Hurry up, Muriel! Or Jenny Greenteeth will drag you into the water!”
Growing up, I lost track of how many times I heard the name Jenny Greenteeth, an evil creature from an old tale who lives in deep water and reaches for children too close to the water’s edge. My siblings never ventured close, so perhaps I was a special case, a child easily bewitched by the glittering unknown.
One afternoon, I walked by myself to the pond down the street. It was a well-known spot; I’d caught my older sister making out with the neighbor’s son there once before. Plenty of cattails lined the pond, creating little areas to hide behind. They swayed in the gentle breeze, making shushing sounds as they rubbed against each other. Oddly shaped pebbles lined my pockets and made them heavy. There was a little hole that I’d dug near the pond, and I was ready to dispose my treasures into it.
In our neighborhood, summers were sticky as toffee and the afternoons stretched out into slow golden evenings. School was out and I found myself on my own. I was nine years old and too old to play with…
