How I Defeated A Troll

How I Defeated a Troll When I Was Eight Years Old

When I was in first and second grade I was tormented by the most awful monster imaginable. It was a green slimy troll with evil sharp fangs, long claws, and glowing red eyes. I first saw him in a storybook of "The Three Billy Goats Gruff". There he sat lurking in the murky green water under his bridge, ready to grab any unsuspecting billy goat (or little girl) who was foolish enough to come his way. He instantly leapt out of that picture and into every nightmare I had for the next two years. Worse than that, he was hiding under my bed, in my closet, in every shadow, and behind every bush. For a while I feared everything green because green was the color of the troll. That made living in a world filled with grass and trees very difficult.

"The big billy goat killed the troll at the end of the story," my dad pointed out.

'That doesn't do me much good," I thought.  "I don't have horns or hooves."

One night we were driving across the state to visit my aunt and uncle. We stopped to eat in a little town called Sterling, North Dakota. I saw a grove of trees where I was sure the troll was lurking. Suddenly the thought occurred to me that I could leave the troll in Sterling and he would only bother me when I was there, which was almost never. My plan worked! When we drove out of Sterling the troll stayed behind and I never saw him again. 

Today, forty years later, I was driving past Sterling and I decided to stop. I can't explain this, but I felt the troll was still there, only he was no longer threatening and malevolent. He had turned into a kind of benign nature spirit.  Maybe that is what he was all along.

Epilogue:  I told my daughter of how I vanquished the troll and she wondered what happened to him after I left him in Sterling.  We decided that he opened up a gas station, got married, had a couple of kids and had a nice life.  The man who owns the gas station there doesn’t look much like a troll, but who knows?!