NEPTUNE'S FACE

A Story by mark slade

JUST AS THE STATUE OF NEPTUNE WAS MISSING, SO WAS HARDY

Hardy had been dragging the net in the North shore for several weeks. He was looking for the lost statue of Neptune. He was hired by the Island's government to find the statue. The flood of 1921 washed away not only the statue that once stood in the town square, but half the population.

Hardy and his assistant had found a piece of the statue. A hand holding the head of a sea serpent. Hardy had come across many books in the Island's library, found many examples of the statue. Even first hand accounts of the storm. From those sources they came to the right area.

Hardy caught something in his net.

It was the face of Neptune. Hardy held it in his hands. It 's marble had turned a puke green from years of being in bottom of the sea. It's eyes were now hollow. He removed seaweed from Neptune's beard.

Hardy looked away, Neptune expanded his already open mouth for the head of a large sea serpent to wrap itself around Hardy's neck and pull him into the choppy current of the sea.

Just as the statue of Neptune was missing, so was Hardy.