The narrator goes for a walk by the sea at their father's suggestion, as they found home boring. While walking, the narrator encounters a huge sea monster emerging from the water. The narrator then loses consciousness. Upon waking in the middle of the night, the narrator remembers the sea monster but also remembers their real home filled with love, which they had forgotten while thinking only of themselves.

1. The Sea Monster
By Laura Halliday

2. “Why don’t you go on a walk?” Dad suggested.
I rolled my eyes at him. ‘Home is so boring,’ I
thought silently.

3. I suddenly noticed that Dad was staring right at
me with that stare that automatically makes you
just do something. Unblinking eyes, tipped head,
a definite expression.

4. I silently walked out of the room, looking directly
at the doorway. I put my hand out as I passed
Dad. It hit him with a small crash, like dogs
smacking their tails against pot plants.

5. I decided I would walk out to the sea and then
walk back home.
I set off, glaring at all the ugly things in nature
as I walked by them.

6. Finally I reached the sea.
I heaved a tired sigh, partly because I was puffed
out, and partly because I was so relieved that the
walk was over.

7. I turned around and was just about to turn back
when I heard a deafening crash and a huge sea
monster emerged.
Then it was blackness.

8. I woke up at about 2am the next morning. I
stared around, blinking rapidly.
I suddenly remembered the walk, the huge
monster.

9. And then I remembered the best thing, something
I had known right from the moment I had been
born till I was 10 years old.
Something that I had forgotten because I was too
carried away thinking about myself.
I remembered home.

10. Not just the boring, back of my mind home.
I thought about the real home, the one full of
love.
And at that moment, I loved it too.