9The Luckless Monster
1 Monsters
Do you think you know all about monsters?
You’ve probably heard of the deadly dragon. It was famous for fighting knights.
I’m sure you’ve heard of the Loch Ness Monster. She’s being spotted.
The Loch Ness Monster is so famous she’s even got her own nickname. They call her Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster.
She calls me Luckless becau I never em to have any luck at all, but Luckless isn’t my real name.
My real name is Flossie.
This is where we live.
It’s a a a bit wet, but it’s home to us. I love it here.
But it can be lonely.
I belong to the same family as Nessie. I live in the same loch as Nessie. I live in the same water. I hunt for the same fish. But we’d have our differences.
For instance, the Loch Ness Monster is huge and scary.
But I’m a bit on the small side. Sometimes Nessie calls me Scaredy Cat.
The Loch Ness Monster swims swift and sure.
But I’m not all that keen on water.
I don’t like the cold and wet. I don’t like the high waves. I don’t like the deep pools and I HATE the whirlpool.
This is the whirlpool.
It goes round and round, and whatever is in the whirlpool goes round and round with it.
Nessie LOVES it. ‘Wheee!’ she yells.
‘Yeeeeeeeeh!’ she yells, and, ‘Come and have a go if you think you’re brave enough!’
I had a go once. I HATED it. The water went up my no, I couldn’t e anything and I felt dizzy and sick.
‘You’re scared!’ Nessie tead. ‘You’re frightened!’
But I wasn’t frightened.
I was TSRRIFIED!
Nessie called me a landlubber, a chicken.
Nessie calls me lots of names: Titch! Scaredy cat! Cry baby!
To tell you the truth, Nessie is a bit of a bully. But nothing Nessie can do would make get
back in that whirlpool again.
Never!
2 No one cares about YOU!
You probably know that the Loch Ness Monster (or Nessie for short) is good at hiding. We monsters have learned the art of camouflage. This means we can hide by changing our colour or making ourlves look like other things.
If someone spots Nessie, she changes.
People who make films, and people who write for newspapers and magazines, are always trying to stop Nessie. They want to take her photo. They want to make a film about her. They want her to be in their newspapers or magazines. She’s famous. She’s a celebrity. Everyone tries to spot Nessie.
But nobody has ever tried to spot me.
I WANT to be made a fuss of. But no matter what I do, nobody notices me at all.
That’s why Nessie calls me the Luckless Monster. ‘No one knows you exist. No one cares if you exist!’ she says.
‘Na na na na na,’Nessie sings.
No one tries to take photos of you!
No one talks about you.
No one cares about YOU at all.’
It’s true. I don’t have any real friends.
There’s Nessie of cour ---but she only talks to me when she feels like it. She only plays with me when she feels like playing. So I’m lonely, and that’s why I think Nessie is right when she calls me the Luckless Monster.
3 How do you find a friend?
One day, I woke up and I said to mylf, ’Enough is enough. Today is the day I will find a real friend, a good friend. Nessie doesn’t care if she has a friend, but I do.’
I want someone who cares for me. I want someone who can e the real me.
But how do you find a friend?
What exactly is a friend?
I thought about this for a long, long time. I even asked Nessie.
‘What exactly is a friend?’ I asked.
‘A friend is someone who is like you, just like you,’ she said. ‘But none is like us, so we CAN’T have friends. Better just to ttle for scaring people.’
Then she gave a roar that nt me skittering away.
‘It works for me. ’She grinned. ‘I love scaring people!’
But I didn’t give up. I was determined to find a friend.
I asked all the animals I met, ‘Plea be my friend.’
This is what they said: They thought I was too big, too wet, too scary looking and too fishy smelling.
Then I asked some children and this is what they said:
The grown ups said, ‘Don’t be silly. There are no such things as monsters. That’s just a shadow. Come along, now. Hurry up.’
People were either scared of me --or they didn’t believe in me.
It was hopeless. So I sulked. I’m very good at sulking. I can do it for ages.
I stayed perfectly still, crosd my arms, drooped my bottom lip and got ready for a HUGE sulk. I was just getting into it, when I heard a noi.
