From My New Book, "This Is Horrible, Stories You'll Regret Reading"

The Critic

It was late Spring in Cindy's little, rural North Carolina town. Soon school would be out for the Summer and the school kids couldn't wait. There was no air conditioning anywhere in town, including the old brick schoolhouse. The heat and humidity were oppressive. Even the teachers were lethargic. Mrs. Bancroft, the fifth grade teacher, was giving more and more long rest periods. She left all the eight foot windows raised in hopes of even a small breeze blowing in. She told the children they could sleep, read or work on their homework during their rest periods. That suited Cindy just fine. She was working on her first book and rest periods gave her extra time to finish it.

Every day Cindy wrote and drew the illustrations. The day she finished the book she was so thrilled. Even if nobody but her ever saw it, she had the pleasure and pride of having finished it. It was a unique book, written in the science fiction genre that fascinated Cindy. There were pictures of different planets, the monsters that lived on each one. She included the moon, just because it was so close to Earth. The moon monster was a horrific creature with a skeleton head and body that tapered off into one huge claw. It had enormous sheer bat-like wings on its back and it made a fearful noise like the humming of hundreds of bees when it flew. It was the best art work Cindy had ever done. She stapled the pages together and tucked the book into the space under her desk.

That day the rest period was especially long. Cindy laid her head down on her desk and fell asleep. She awoke to Mrs. Bancroft standing next to her, turning the pages of her book. The teacher carelessly dropped it down on the desk and said, “That monster from the moon doesn't belong in this collection, it's about planets not moons.” That was it.... no words of praise for creativity or hard work, just a criticism. It felt like a knife in Cindy's heart.

Before the teacher could turn and walk back to her desk, a loud humming was growing outside the window drawing nearer and nearer. Soon the the owner of that hum appeared as it flew into the room through a nearby window. It had a skeleton head and body, no feet. Its body tapered off into one  large, sharp claw. On its back were unfurled, gigantic sheer, bat-like wings. Before Cindy could collect her thoughts, the hideous thing caught Mrs. Bancroft in his skeletal arms, jumped out of the tall window and flew away with her. It was a big mystery. None of the other children had seen what happened and the police eventually gave up their search for Mrs. Bancroft.

Cindy kept her mouth shut, she couldn't explain it anyway. She hoped the creature didn't eat her teacher and that somehow she was having a good life on the moon. For years to come, every time Cindy looked at the moon she thought of Mrs. Bancroft. Cindy didn't show her book to anyone and she didn't write again for many years. She couldn't take the critique and believed she had no talent as a writer, She especially couldn't endure the trauma of drawing or creating a character and watching it destroy her critics.