Tread Softly

There was a candy cane growing out of Eleanora’s front lawn. It was standing straight up and it was curved round at the top, striped red and white like any other Christmas candy Eleanora had seen before. When she tried to pick it up, however, it wouldn’t come out. She pulled as hard as she could, sweating with effort, but her fingers slipped and she fell down onto her butt. The candy cane was stuck. Probably, thought Eleanora, it had a wide root system. Her mother, who gardened in her spare time, had told her about root systems before.

Eleanora sat on her front lawn and stared at the candy cane, growing more and more annoyed as she thought about it. It wasn‘t a proper candy cane because it hadn‘t left her hands sticky after she pulled on it. Experimentally, she kneeled down in front of it and gave the end an experimental lick. It didn’t taste of peppermint, like it should have, but instead it tasted almost metallic. Gross. Had it been a real candy cane, Eleanora wouldn’t have minded, but this was a weird candy cane and it looked very conspicuous in the front lawn.

Eleanora thought for a bit longer, chewing her lip in concentration. Finally, she took a rock from the garden path and, aiming carefully, pounded at the head of the candy cane until the end broke off. A dark red liquid began to ooze out of its center, as if the candy cane was bleeding.1

Eleanora was eight years old, which meant that she was old enough to know that there was something terribly weird about bleeding candy canes. She wondered if she should go and get her mother, but then decided against it. Her mom had been in a bad mood since breakfast and so Eleanora didn’t want to be yelled at for something that wasn’t her fault.

Jack, her neighbor, came over.

“Whatcha doing, Ellie?” he asked, sucking his thumb.

Jack was only six and always spilled things down the front of his shirt. Today he had spaghetti sauce all over his Osh Kosh B'Gosh overalls. Eleanora ignored him, as she usually did. He was a nuisance to her. That was another reason she didn’t want to tell her mom about the candy cane. If her mom saw that Jack was there, she would make Eleanora play with him! Eleanora had better things to do.

Jack kneeled down beside her and looked at the candy cane. “Whysa candy cane growin’ in your yard?” His face was chubby and cherub-like. His hair was curly and had mud rubbed in it, most likely his own doing. He smelled like tomatoes.

“Go away!” Eleanora ordered imperiously. She gave him an angry frown. She didn’t like playing with the neighborhood kids. They were stinky!

Jack stuck out his tongue and began to pull at the candy cane, ignoring how the blood stuff was getting all over his hands. Grunting, he gave a series of strong tugs until he felt something give, possibly one of the candy roots breaking. Beside him, Eleanora was yelling at him to stop it.

"It’s my candy cane! Not yours! Go away!" She grabbed the candy cane with one hand and started pushing at him with the other. “Mine! Mine!”

Suddenly, there was a sickening ripping sound as the candy cane began to rise out of the ground. Eleanora screamed shrilly and Jack began to cry as the loose dirt pushed out like water bursting from a high-pressure hose. Then two yellow eyes appeared. Eleanora gulped and realized that something indeed had been pressing on the ground, but from beneath the soil.

Following the yellow eyes there came a mouth with a sour expression on it. Following the mouth came a neck as thick as a fire hydrant, then a chest filled with rippling muscles, then two arms and two legs and, finally, a set of highly arched feet with just three toes on them each. The toes ended with large claws instead of toenails. The entire monster was a dull green. The broken candy cane grew out of its head.

The monster cleared his throat and glared at the children. He opened his mouth to reveal large, pointed, yellow teeth and a thick navy tongue. Eleanora squealed and grabbed onto Jack, scared for her life.

The monster frowned. "Excuse me," he said, "but would you please quit doing that? It’s really annoying." The monster had a British accent.

Eleanora gave a small nod. Jack just stared.

Grunting, the monster shrugged and stepped back into the small hill of dirt it had created when coming up to the surface. With huge, dull green hands it began scooping dirt back onto itself until it was completely buried. When it was finished reburying itself, the candy cane poked up from the center of the dirt. The grass around it was ruined.

Eleanora looked at the big brown circle that stuck out like a sore thumb in the middle of the lush green lawn. Her mother was sure to notice, and then Eleanora would probably get yelled at. Her dad would get yelled at, too, probably. All her parents really did anymore was fight and now, because of the lawn, they’d have a really good excuse to start yelling all over again.

Turning to Jack, Eleanora clutched at her hands and said, “Oh gosh. How’m I going to explain this?”

Jack shrugged his dirty shoulders. “I dunno, it’s your candy cane.”

With that, he turned and toddled back over to his house, his overalls making little swishing sounds as he walked.2

"Hey," cried Eleanora, "come back! I need help!"3

Jack simply turned around and stuck out his tongue. 4

"Stupid little jerk," mumbled Eleanora. Jack was so mean! She stomped the ground angrily. 5

"Stop that, please," came the British voice from under the soil. Eleanora stood still, ashamed. That was the same tone of voice her mother used whenever Eleanora got in trouble. Being careful to walk as lightly as possible, Eleanora headed towards her house. Maybe if she stayed in her room and wasn’t caught outside, they wouldn’t think she did it...6

Not even looking where she was going, Eleanora walked straight into her mother.7

“My goodness, dear!” said her mother. “You should watch where you’re going.”8

“Sorry, mom,” she mumbled and tried to walk past without her mother suspecting anything. 9

Unfortunately for Eleanora, her trying to not look suspicious made her look even more so to her mother. 10

“Ellie...” Her mother warned, opening her mouth to interrogate her daughter. Eleanora closed her eyes and braced herself. Her mother was very good at figuring out what Eleanora had done wrong. She opened her eyes again when she noticed that her mother wasn’t saying anything. Her mother stood frozen, mouth agape, as she realized what had happened to the lawn.11

“Oh, my goodness, Ellie!“ her mother finally managed to croak, “What in the world did you do?”12

Eleanora crossed her arms behind her back and looked down at her shoes, not answering. Her mother spent ages on the front yard, watering the grass and running the lawnmower weekly. Their yard was the best front yard in the neighborhood. All the neighbors said so, and that was the one thing that her mother and father could agree on. The brown spot in the yard stuck out like a huge pimple at the end of a nose.13

Eleanora winced as her mother grabbed her by the arm and marched her out onto the grass. She tried not to look at the spot, but that didn't work. Her mother pointed to the lawn and waited until Eleanora finally focused on the ruined grass.14

“Young lady, you’d better explain yourself.”15

Eleanora stubbornly shook her head. “I didn’t do anything! It’s not my fault!” 16

Her mother folded her arms and gave her the look, which meant that her mother didn’t believe her. Eleanora knew that she simply couldn’t tell her mother about the monster. Grown-ups could be slapped on the nose by a boogieman and still wouldn’t believe it. 17

“Um...” Eleanora began, searching her mind for a decent explanation. She was completely out of ideas, though. She could claim that Jack did it, since he was the one who awoke the monster, but her mother would never believe her. Eleanora blamed Jack for everything, including thunderstorms and whenever she had cavities. Her mother had told her, on numerous occasions, that she wouldn’t hear any more lies about, “that darling Buchowski boy.” Eleanora decided that she would just have to think of another explanation.18

Before she could open her mouth to claim that the brown spot had been there when she’d first came outside, Eleanora was interrupted by her mother’s discovery of the candy cane. It had not been buried completely and only the top two inches up to where the cane had been broken peeked out of the dirt. 19

Her mother frowned deeper. “Sticking candy into the yard, I see. Just what were you doing to the lawn, young lady?”20

Eleanora started to deny that she‘d done anything, but then she saw that her mother bend over. Her mother’s fingers wrapped themselves around the base of the candy cane as Eleanora watched in horror. Just as Eleanora was about to warn her, her mother gave a good, hard yank. 21

The ground this time didn’t just rise up, but exploded. Dirt flew everywhere and splattered them both. A confused earthworm landed in her mother’s hair, making her squeal and pull it out with disgust. Eyes flashing a very dangerous shade of yellow, the monster stepped out of the ground and plodded over to where they stood. 22

As Eleanora and her mother found out that day, nothing makes you feel smaller than a monster with a British accent. 23

“Excuse me?” he asked in an infuriated tone of voice. 24

Her mother tried to reply, but all that came out was a high-pitched, “eep.” 25

The monster started pacing, bouncing as he walked in order to support his tri-toed feet. Eleanora moved quietly behind her mother’s skirt and only stuck her head out as far as she needed to see. The monster looked very peeved. The candy cane had started bleeding again. The monster’s forehead looked like it had a dark gray splotch on it, which Eleanora thought might be a bruise.26

His eyes flashed in rage as he shook his dirt-covered arm at them. “All I ask is to live in peace, but how’s a guy supposed to get a good afternoon’s sleep if people keep on insisting on yanking my horn? Do you have any idea how annoying that is? Do you?”27

As both mother and daughter watched in horror, the monster took a step towards them, the candy cane horn bleeding furiously. 28

“I... I’m sorry,” stammered her mother, sounding both terrified and contrite. The monster closed his eyes for a second and counted quietly to ten. When he opened his eyes again, they had returned to the softer shade of yellow they had been when the monster had first arose, which made Eleanora feel absurdly relieved. The eyes had been a really angry sort of yellow.29

“Hmpth,” he snorted. “I see how it is. I guess I’m just going to have to find some less bothersome soil to nap in.” The monster turned and jumped back in the crater it had produced when it had burst out of the soil. Taking one last look at Eleanora and her mother, the monster made a rude sound and muttered, “Good riddance to bad rubbish.” His head disappeared underneath the surface, and then there was a strange noise. It was not unlike the sound Jack’s dog made when it dug holes to bury its chew toys. Eleanora clutched at her mother’s leg and buried her face into her skirt until the strange sound stopped and the yard was quiet again. 30

Together, they crept over to the edge of the crater. The bottom couldn’t be seen because a large tunnel, looking like a gigantic wormhole, had been dug straight down. Eleanora didn’t want to be there anymore.31

“Mom, let’s go inside. Please?”32

Her mother looked down at her, her cheeks splattered with dirt and her dress ruined. She placed her hand on Eleanora’s shoulder and sighed. 33

“Come on, then. Let’s see if we can’t make sense of what just happened.” 34

Taking her mother’s hand, Eleanora went inside the house to have a long talk with her mum. 35

As the front door closed, a pair of yellow eyes blinked out of the darkness of the hole. A small noise was heard, like someone clicking their tongue as the monster shook its head. The soft dirt underneath its feet crunched softly as it began to search for a new yard to stay in. As it walked, it began to grumble. 36

“Some people these days, won’t even let a guy get some shut eye! You’d think they’d have learned some manners, but no, nope, not at all...”37

Gradually the noise began to fade until all that could be heard was the small whispers of earthworms and the soft calls of the birds from the surface world. The walls were crumbling already, and soon, the hole would cave in. All that was left of the monster was a small piece of candy cane lying on Eleanora’s front lawn, bleeding strange candy blood into the soil. 38