Hello Chessie

As Gretchen looked down on the inflatable float, she felt butterflies flutter around in her stomach. Well, they already were fluttering around in there, but now that she was about to climb down to the water tube, the butterflies were flying around like they each took a sip of espresso.

“C’mon Gretch, we’re all waiting on ya!” Zoe cried impatiently while Gretchen heard a constant splosh splash sound behind her. She turned around and sure enough, her friend was tapping her foot against the wet floor of the boat. All while crossing her arms.

Gretchen couldn’t help but sigh. She loved her friend, she really did, but despite being generally generous and helpful, Zoe really did need to work on her patience.

“Calm down Zoe, this is her first time water tubing, give her a sec!” Dwight exclaimed with criticizing eyes from behind Zoe. When Zoe looked chastened, Gretchen gave Dwight an appreciative smile, which he returned with both a smile and a nod.

Feeling a bit better, Gretchen turned around and looked once more at the inflatable float.

She moved from Kansas to here in eastern Virginia around six months ago and even though there were lakes in Kansas, Gretchen had never gone water tubing. So when Zoe invited her and Dwight to go water tubing with her family and some friends of the family, Gretchen accepted. At first, she had been excited because sitting on a giant inflatable float, or water tube, that was being pulled by a boat sounded like a lot of fun. Then about ten minutes after they arrived at the Chesapeake Bay, Gretchen saw Zoe’s little brother and an older couple pile onto the float. Then, to Gretchen’s surprise, Zoe’s dad, who had stopped the boat in the middle of the bay so the three could safely get on the float, suddenly kicked it into high gear.

Gretchen had instinctively grabbed the boat railing as they sped across the water, causing the float behind them to skip with almost every wave and its inhabitants to squeal with both delight and fear. The teenage girl was confused but before she could voice her concerns, Zoe’s dad turned the boat sharply making the woman lose her grip on the float and fall into the water.

“That’s one down, two more to go!” Zoe’s dad had yelled victoriously before taking another sharp turn. As the screams behind them intensified, Gretchen finally realized that water tubing wasn’t a relaxing activity like she had envisioned. It was a game to see who can stay on the float the longest.

And now it was her turn to play.

Hoping beyond all hope that water tubing wasn’t as scary as it looked, Gretchen took a deep breath before she stepped down onto the float. She then went down to her knees and crawled to the left side and laid down, her friends carefully following behind her. When they were all lying down on the float, Zoe raised her hand.

“We’re ready!” Zoe exclaimed. Gretchen gulped as she gripped both the handle on her left and one in front of her tightly.

She really hoped that this would actually be fun.

“Alright! Hang on!” she heard Zoe’s dad yell before the engine roared with life. The next thing Gretchen knew, she was hanging on for dear life as the float, thanks to the boat, sped across the bay.

Gretchen let out a short scream as the float bounced roughly due to the waves the boat made, causing her chest to hurt slightly although she was wearing a life vest like everyone else. Her fingers began to strain with the effort it took her to keep holding on with each moment that passed by, so Gretchen wasn’t surprised when the hand that was holding the front handle began to slip.

“Gretchen!” Zoe cried as she moved her hand over till they were over Gretchen’s. Gretchen felt relief when her hand instantly stopped slipping and stayed curled around the handle under Zoe’s hand. Thank goodness Zoe had been sharing the same handle as her or else that would have ended differently.

Then suddenly, the boat made a sharp right turn.

Despite Gretchen gripping the handles with all her strength and despite Zoe holding onto her right hand, Gretchen got thrown off the water tube. As she heard her friends calling out her name, the only thing Gretchen could do as she fell towards the bay was close her eyes and mouth. A second later, she felt herself tumble into the water so much that she lost all sense of direction. It didn’t help either that the water was slightly cold, which caused her body to tense up with the shock.

But then, she stopped tumbling. So Gretchen finally opened her eyes and saw that she was currently upright with her head above the water, while her body bounced up and down with each small wave. The boat was still sailing across the bay, and it looked like both Zoe and Dwight were still on the float. It might be a little while before they come back for her.

Prepared to wait, Gretchen breathed out a heavy sigh as she thought about her recent experience. To her surprise, she found it fun. Sure water tubing was scary, but much like a roller-coaster, the adrenaline rush it gave her also made it exciting. She actually wanted to go again! Well...in a turn or two.

Gretchen smiled and idly turned her head around the bay, truly believing that it was a beautiful body of water.

Only to come face to face with a pair of black eyes once she turned her head back towards the boat.

Her scream stuck in her throat, Gretchen could only stare as a giant, black worm-like head stared at her right back. Its scales were as black as its eyes and its very thick body seemed to stretch on at her right side. Gretchen would have turned her head to see just how long the creature was but she couldn’t move a muscle. She didn’t know if it was because of shock or some kind of natural instinct but no matter how much she tried, she couldn’t move. The only thing she could do was look at the faint reflection of a girl with a terrified expression.

It seemed like a lifetime passed as the sea creature and Gretchen stared at each other as both of them floated on top of the waves, the roaring of the boat faintly heard in the distance. Then, without warning, the creature turned its attention away and began to swim to the left. As it did so, its body moved from side to side, much like a regular snake on land.

Even when the giant serpent finally passed by her without sending any indication that it would do her harm, Gretchen just floated there silently and stared blankly in front of her.

Then the moment was over and what just happened finally sank in.

“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!” Gretchen repeated over and over in residual terror as her heart beat so fast that a part of her mind was afraid that she was going to get a heart attack.

That...that wasn’t just a snake! It was too big, too wide...it had to have been a sea serpent, a sea monster, just like in the myths of old! And while that monster didn’t quite look like the ones in the picture books, it still looked very dangerous. Which begged the question of why it didn’t eat or at least attack Gretchen. Was she so unassuming and fragile looking that it just didn’t care about her? Or was it just not hungry?

Oh, why didn’t anyone tell her that the Chesapeake Bay had its very own reptilian monster like Loch Ness?!

“Gretchen!” Gretchen, who had been covering her mouth with her hands for the last minute or so, looked up to see her friends waving at her from the incoming boat, both of them now clearly wet.

“Did you see me stop myself from falling by grabbing onto Dwight’s legs?!” Zoe exclaimed excitedly as the boat came to a stop beside her.

“You are so lucky that I didn’t lose my grip because of that,” Dwight told her with a friendly smile. “Though I admit I’m impressed that you held on as long as you did down there.”

They didn’t see it at all did they?

“I know right?!” Zoe agreed happily before she turned back to Gretchen. “What’s taking ya so long? Climb back up already!”

“Uh...right,” Gretchen replied a bit distractedly as she swam to the boat and climbed up the small ladder. A few seconds later, she was on the boat was sitting right in between Zoe and Dwight near Zoe’s dad.

“So did you have fun, Gretchen?” Zoe’s dad inquired warmly as he turned around with one hand on the giant silver wheel and a wide smile.

“...Gretchen, are you okay?” Dwight asked her with a worried expression when Gretchen both didn’t respond or smile.

“Gretch?” Zoe echoed, her voice full of concern. For a moment, Gretchen didn’t reply because she didn’t know if they would take her seriously if she told them about the creature.

At least the other inhabitants of the boat were too involved in their own conversations to pay her any mind.

“Um...is there a legend about a...monster that lives in the Chesapeake Bay?” Gretchen finally asked tentatively. To her surprise, Zoe’s dad’s eyes lighted up with pure delight.

“You saw Chessie?!” he exclaimed excitedly.

“Chessie?” Zoe and Dwight both repeated quizzically.

“You two don’t know either? She’s Chesapeake Bay’s very own monster, just like Loch Ness’ Nessie!”

“Seriously?!” Zoe cried in pure disbelief while Dwight’s mouth dropped open. “Just like Nessie?!”

“Well, it seems like she’s more like a sea serpent than whatever Nessie is but yes! Of course, people haven’t been able to get a good look at her or take a good picture of her but they all seem to agree that she has a black body and also that she is very long and swims on top of the water.”

“Has she attacked anyone?” Dwight asked curiously.

“Not that I know of! I think she mostly just keeps to herself.”

“Just like Nessie,” Zoe gasped in awe. “I want to see her.”

“Me too,” Dwight agreed.

“So did you see her Gretchen? Did you see Chessie?” Zoe’s dad questioned her like he was a little child begging to read stories from their grandpa. When Zoe and Dwight turned to her with similar expressions, Gretchen just looked at them all before she sighed.

“Yeah. Will it be a problem if I just stay in the boat for the rest of the time?”