Ellen Rigby peered through the edge of her curtains as the thing slithered down the center of the street. She knew better than to do it. She knew she was supposed to be far inside the house with the lights off and trying not to move so as not to attract any attention. But her curiousity would always get the better of her. She'd been sneaking peeks at it since she was a little girl. She still had no way to describe it.

It was big. And black. And slimy. It looked like it had stubby little arms and short legs that waddled out to the side. The trail of gunk it left came from its tail. Lots of people thought it was a giant slug, but she knew better. And it had some sort of a trunk like an elephant that usually sucked at the ground as it walked. And there was a big tuft of hair on the top of its head. Or, more accurately, there was a black gooey mess on the part of its body that she assumed was its head.

Nobody knew what the thing was or where it came from or where it was going. But it had been coming through on September 27th every day since the founding of the town 85 years ago. It usually doesn't bother anybody unless something gets in its way or it sees something interesting. Just lumbers through and then it's gone for another year.

The first time it came through, some of the founders had tried to kill it, but that only made it mad. The town barely recovered and only stayed put because it had lost its leaders who would've decided to move. People stayed indoors the next year.

A few years ago, the government had sent some in some cavalry troops to catch the thing for study, but they didn't last long either. Nobody knew exactly what happened to them, but the townsfolk were finding bits of riders all over the place for months after the terrible racket that it had caused.

Folks have stayed inside ever since. Everybody knew to stay inside and leave it alone. But Ellen still peered through her window. As the thing trudged by her house, her cuckoo clock went off. She just about jumped out of her skin as she turned to look at it, letting the curtain drop for an instant. She collected herself shortly, and chuckling slightly returned to the window.

Her mouth slowly slid open. The thing had noticed her. It had changed direction and was plodding towards her house. It knocked over her fence and left a trail of black goo up her walk. She would have turned to run, but she was just so fascinated seeing the thing up close and finally getting a good look at it.

Unfortunately, she didn't live long enough to be able to share it with anyone.