The Orange Octopus.

A little boy and his encounter with a not-so-usual claw machine at a shopping mart.

The Orange Octopus.

A short story by Kim Mathews.

         The octopus stared at Jimmy, and Jimmy stared back. His five year old eyes widened with wonder at the sight; it was a gigantic fluffy thing, traffic-cone orange with a sewn on smile and bright button eyes, and Jimmy wanted it tremendously. Turning his gaze from the fogged up window, he stuck a tiny hand in his pockets for 25 cents. He found nothing but some crumbs and an old tootsie roll wrapper, the treat being long since digested. With a defeated sigh, he dragged his feet back to the bench to wait for his mother to finish her shopping.

         Swinging his feet back and forth, he heard a curious sound of metal against stone. He turned his Spider Man shoes over to see a dirty, sticky quarter held precariously in place by a piece of blue chewing gum. He jumped up excitedly and ran to wash it off in a nearby fountain, the octopus staring at him all the while. Shoving the coin into the slot of the machine, he impatiently hopped up and down as the mechanism sprang to life. Hardly breathing, he painfully directed the shiny, rudimentary hand over his prize and pushed the button.

         He started, not daring to even blink as his octopus was lifted into the air like some bizarre piñata. It dropped into the gigantic chute, its smile disappearing down in the darkness. With an exuberant yell, Jimmy stuck his hand in the door on the machine to grab his new toy, but was disappointed when his tiny fingers failed to grasp it. He got down on his knees and opened the door, seeing it all the way in the back, the mouth of the chute being more of a tunnel than an actual chute. With a triumphant grin, he pushed himself in the chute to get his toy until half of him was dangling out of the hole. Just as his hand was about to touch his treasure, a fluffy tentacle latched onto his arm. With a scream of pure terror, Jimmy tried pulling back, but he lost his footing outside the chute door, allowing the octopus to pull him into the plushy darkness while it continued to smile.

         Not yet ten minutes later, the octopus watched as a little girl with bright green eyes pushed her nose against the glass, her face a lit with wonder. The octopus smiled back at her, still hungry.

Reviews

[Alana McGuire]

Ahhhh this was strangely fascinating!! I have an interest in octopus and I thought this would most likely be an interesting read. I had a stuffed, red octopus when I was younger, but thankfully it never grabbed me back. Hahah
You used really great discriptions to make the reader be able to feel like they're there so much better: trafic-cone orange, Spider Man shoes, and describing how the child's face is pressed up against the glass, lit with wonder.
So incredible :)