I Saw Two Hands Coming Out of the Water

First Published: 31st of March, 2020 by Patrick Carpen.

Instruction: Write a Short Story Which Contains the Following Line: I Saw Two Hands Coming Out of the Water.

If you are asked to write a short story which “contains” a line or sentence, it means that the line or sentence must appear at some point in the story. It may appear in the beginning, middle, end or anywhere in between, but it must appear in the story.

Note: Sometimes, you are asked to write a short story “inspired” by a line or sentence. In this case, the line or sentence may or may not appear in the story, but it must be understood that the story was “inspired” by that line or sentence.

If you are asked to write a short story based on the above sentence, try to think of possible scenarios that could result in such a situation. Try to brainstorm. To “brainstorm” means to think of all possible ideas or solutions no matter how ridiculous, silly or impractical they may first seem. After brainstorming, you select the best possible idea and expand it.

Here are some possible scenarios that could result in two hands rising out of the water.

1. Someone is drowning.
2. A mysterious underwater creature with human hands.
3. A Ghost.
4. A mermaid.
5. An alien.
6. Someone pulling a prank on you.

What else can you think of?

The short story below entitled, “I Saw Two Hands Rising Out of the Water,” uses scenario No. 2 above.

I Saw Two Hands Rising Out of the Water

Nothing was unusual about that Friday evening when I was walking home from school. Except that, on that day, I decided to ditch my friends and take the back road which ran alongside the big trench and bushes.

As I walked along, I thought to myself, “what a beautiful scenery this is!” There were beautiful flower plants with flowers that I had never seen anywhere in my life – too beautiful for words to describe. But that wasn’t all! Suddenly, a musical sound filled my ear. I looked up. It was a flock of beautiful birds singing in the trees above. I had never heard such beautiful music in my life!

Then I started to wonder why my friends were always scared to take this path. Oh, I remembered, it was because their parents warned them not to! “What scaredy-cats!” I laughed. “Thank God I’m a brave person and not like them!”

Just then, the place darkened suddenly and the stars started to twinkle in the sky above. I thought to myself, “how did the darkness come so quickly?” I must admit that I got a bit scared. But I reminded myself that I am a brave man and not a scaredy-cat. So I blew a whistle and continued walking, trying to convince myself that I wasn’t scared.

Just then, some bats flew above me. “Bats!” I thought. “How did bats get here?” I had never seen bats in the village before. I started to walk a bit faster, but I didn’t want to run because I am not a coward like my friends.

Suddenly, I heard a strange howling noise. I felt beads of sweat running down my face. I was about to run when something caught my eyes. As I glared into the trench near to me, full of fright and wonder, I saw two hands rising out of the water.

Those were human hands! I froze in terror. I wanted to scream but no words left my mouth. My eyes bulged out of their sockets. As the hands rose slowly out of the water, they seemed to be coming towards me. I tried to run, but my feet were frozen in terror. Then I saw a head appear. It was the head of a cow. A cow’s head and human hands!

I could hear my jaw hitting against each other as the strange animal emerged. It lounged toward me. At that moment, I had no idea where the energy came from, but I bolted faster than Usain Bolt in the Olympics 100 meters dash. Within 0.2 seconds, I was home safely in my bedroom.

From that day onward, no one was able to explain how I became the school’s best athlete. They had no idea where I got my training. But if I told them, they might not believe!

Word Count: 473 words