My name is Lila. I was meeting a friend downtown by Navy Pier on the bustling streets of Chicago, by Lake Michigan. I don’t know if you’ve been lately but Grant Park has been replaced by a pond and there’s a giant boardwalk area right next to the river, and it seems a bit jungle like. If you’d been there before, believe me, it’s very different now.
That’ll all be relevant eventually, but I need to give full context. My kid sister was trailing me, she is pretty annoying mostly because she’s ten times smarter than anyone she interacts with, adult or not. But she’s soft. Anyway, we were meeting up with my friend, Alex. Her mom hardly let her downtown unsupervised, but we both lied and said my mom, who was also super strict, would be there.
We were walking along the lake, dipping into stores when we came across what seemed like a giant bookstore that was open air.
We passed by the front desk before it branched into multiple rooms, a man and woman nodding hello as they were deep in conversation, distracted.
I told my sister to be careful as we wandered, and suddenly I felt the air shift as soon as I entered a room alone, I didn’t know where they went. I moved around a giant pillar that had a circular bookcase, and at the bottom, something cerulean, azure, saphirre, indigo, every type of blue color screamed at me. I dropped on my knees and picked it up quickly, it was a giant book with intoxicating markings surrounding the biggest jewel I had ever seen, placed right in the middle.
I was not a thief, and had never stolen before that day. I probably had enough money to put it on hold. But I wasn’t in control of myself. I instantly darted for the door and left without anyone seeing me, so I thought.
My friend and sister came out shortly after, I saw, hiding behind a bench, clutching the book tightly and absentmindedly running my thumb over the jewel over and over again. The waves from the Lake seemed calm earlier, now they were drenching my back and I was hunched over to protect the book. I hadn’t even looked inside yet but I felt some primal connection that it couldn’t be ruined. I wanted nothing more to hide in my room in Little Italy or Old Town (divorced parents=two homes, great, right?) Or even in Boystown sweating out stress or Pilsen exploring the chefs kiss food but not trying to be part of the gentrification. The city is complicated, and harsh to minorities.
Back to my story. As my friend and sister reached me, I started hearing far away screaming, and all the store owners rushed out of shops to look along with the crowds. There was a cruise ship on the lake, along with other boats that would take people out to see the skyline.
There were also giant floaties, that I had never seen before, one a giant swan, another a giant tube, another a giant squid, and so on, that looked like they were holding at least 50 people each, and they were all screaming or jumping into the water… or almost looked like they were being dragged.
As instantly as the screaming started, there was pure silence, as my sister and friend were on either side of me, panting.
“We lost you! Where the fuck have you been?! Why was the store lady screaming at you?!” My friend berated me, as I quickly led them down closer to Wacker and Lake. I couldn’t talk, I was just clutching my book.
“What the fuck is that?!” My friend hissed, and I pulled them inside an open air restaurant and forced them to sit down. We politely ordered some food and had a perfect view of the Lake.
Once we were settled I leaned forward and said, “I have no idea, but it has to be with me now.”
Both of them stared at me like I was crazy, and my sister asked to see it but I couldn’t let it out of my grasp, still couldn’t stop running my fingers over the jewel.
Food arrived quickly and two bites in we heard screaming again, and looked out the window. The plastic floaties were heading towards us at a massive pace, and this time since they were closer, we could see tentacles grabbing people, I now suspected they weren’t jumping earlier.
I quickly threw probably too much cash on the table and pulled them out, running closer to Lake Street to get away from the river.
Like I said earlier, things had… changed…
At the last minute I pushed us left while we were heading South and we were instantly in a jungle that lived between Michigan Ave and the River.
I’m ashamed to say I was more concerned about the book than my sister and friend, but we all slid down a hill into an overgrowth that was a weirdly good hiding spot. My sister was crying, and I finally felt awful. I hugged her tight and held her face and told her I needed to find out more, and asked if she could stay there and be quiet for me. She nodded, and I slipped her my watch and told her that if anything scared her enough to leave, or if I wasn’t back in two hours, she was to head to the free cultural museum a block away, or down into Millenium train station into the bathroom and lock the actual bathroom door.
She was brave and was wiping her tears as my friend and I climbed up the slope where we had cover. There were patches of blood everywhere, but drunken party-goers were still sound, oblivious.
We started to head back North, crouching behind trees and buildings, me still holding the book like a newborn baby about to be taken away. My best friend side-eyed me, asking why I would do such a thing. Neither of us were rich, our parents AND ourselves worked hard for an honest living. Unexpectedly I felt tears form as I felt guilt for taking it. It was against everything I stood for.
She grimaced and grabbed and squeezed my hand and said we had bigger things to worry about. That made me snap to as well.
We were getting back near Grant Park, and things seemed more normal at the pond. There was a designated fishing area, and a swim area. Embarrassingly, we let our guard down. We were out without our parents, and for five minutes, it felt like a fun day. We got close to the middle of the pond, and we’re jumping across big rocks bordering it.
I slipped, and as hard as I tried I couldn’t stop the book from going down with me, and half crushing my hand and feeling part of the jewel crack off in it. I screamed to try to keep it in my grasp and from the pain, and when I finally stopped, every human in the pond, including my friend, was screaming bloody murder, some seemingly pulled underneath water and only bubbles left in their wake.
I clawed through muddy soil sobbing with the book in good arm and my bad hand wrapped around the broken gem, bleeding at points where it cut me, desperately searching for my friend.
Everything had gone quiet aside from loved ones screaming for those that had been in the water. I paced back and forth before I fell to my knees cutting my palm with the jewel before I realized I needed to get to my sister and talk to the people I had stolen from.TF