"Why didn't any of them see it?"
The veins on Child's Dad's forehead twitched.
It was partly from the strain of his mind racing, and partly from his frustration with his child's sheer stubbornness...
Seeing the child fall silent, Child's Dad pressed his advantage.
"Tell me why."
"Your friends were right there with you."
"There's no reason you'd see it and they wouldn't."
"Tell me..."
Child's Dad looked into the child's eyes.
"All those people didn't see it..."
"But you were the only one who did..."
"So the one with the problem..."
"Is it you?"
"Or them?"
"Do you think your two eyes are better than all of theirs?"
"Are you better than them?"
"Only you could see that man-eating monster..."
"No one else—not your friends, not your grandparents—could see it..."
"Do you really think that's what happened?"
Child's Mom felt the trembling in the child's hand subside.
She gently stroked the back of the child's hand.
"Lele."
"It's okay."
"You just saw something wrong by accident."
"It's nothing serious."
"It happens to lots of people."
"When they realize they were mistaken, they don't take what they saw seriously."
"They just laugh it off as a funny mistake and tell other people about it..."
"Everyone has a good laugh, and then it's over."
"No one keeps getting scared after they know they saw something wrong..."
"No one... believes their eyes were playing tricks on them."
"No one..."
Child's Mom bent down to look into the child's eyes.
"Do you understand?"
The child stared blankly at his mother.
"...But..."
"What I saw was real..."
"You child..."
Even Grandma couldn't help speaking up.
He was far too stubborn.
So many people had told him that he'd been mistaken.
That what he saw wasn't real.
Why wouldn't he