{"id":1194,"date":"2018-06-04T17:00:25","date_gmt":"2018-06-04T17:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jonathanharker.co.uk\/theghostlyworld\/?page_id=1194"},"modified":"2022-10-28T08:29:09","modified_gmt":"2022-10-28T08:29:09","slug":"the-pond-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jonathanharker.co.uk\/theghostlyworld\/the-pond-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pond -2"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Joe Stanley<\/span><\/p>\n

2<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

After a light breakfast, I moved around the lake introducing myself and meeting the folks that lived there.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most were retired. There were a few properties that had been passed along by inheritance so there was a small number of younger people as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

A few even recognized me from the Register. By that evening, word had spread around and I was something of a celebrity. (My pride is showing here freely.) After that I had no shortage of people to interview.<\/span><\/p>\n

I filled a notebook with stories and jokes and personal histories. All of it was great, but not all of it was the material I was after. I didn’t envy the task of editing it all and I knew I couldn’t put much into my article. I did think it would make a nice book if I could piece it together, but I was planning to talk about the whole community.<\/span><\/p>\n

They were some really great people and this was a really great place. They were something the world needed to know about, but that was a task for another day.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of my last goals for the day was to revisit the shop. I wanted to check on that old man. I was ready to “just” ask for clarification on how he wanted his name to appear in the paper, but I was worried.<\/span><\/p>\n

The shop keeper was the best witness. Most of the others only saw the flash and heard the noise.<\/span><\/p>\n

I stepped up on the porch and tried the door. It was locked and the inside was dark.<\/span>
\nA voice came from behind me.<\/span>
\n“He’s gone,” said the little old man who walked with a cane.<\/span>
\n“Moved out already?” I asked.<\/span>
\n“Gone,” he repeated, gesturing to the car beside the shop.<\/span>
\nReggie and Mary, two of the younger people on the lake were hurrying up with a look of concern.<\/span>
\n“It swallowed him up.”<\/span>
\n“What…” I began and he interrupted with a wild bellow, “Swallowed him up and it’s gonna get every God damned last one of us!”<\/span>
\nReggie and Mary tried to calm him, “Lester, you do this every time you go off your medicine…”<\/span>
\n“Bullshit!” he roared and began coughing so hard I thought he’d pass out.<\/span>
\n“Lester calm down,”<\/span>
\n“Ain’t no medicine gonna make you right wit’ God! Better pray, better pray cause we all gonna die! It’s gonna swallow us all!”<\/span>
\nReggie lead him off and Mary apologized. “He’s suffering from dementia,” she explained.<\/span>
\n“Not at all,” I told her, “not at all.” She smiled.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Ain’t you heard it yet? Don’t you feel it?” Came the old man’s voice as she hurried to join them.<\/span>
\n“Don’t you have a heart? Can’t you feel it? It’s going to get us all, swallow us all!”<\/span><\/p>\n

I stood alone for a second and went back to my cabin.<\/span><\/p>\n

I sat at the desk, halfway sorting through my notes. There were so many things on my mind that I was quickly distracted.<\/span><\/p>\n

I got up and looked out the window again. I saw a few of the blooms swirling around the water. I hurried down to the water and out on the dock. I wanted a closer look.<\/span><\/p>\n

The nearest one was about the size of a dinner table, orange in color. I found a long stick and reached out toward it from the dock. It was just beyond my reach and I stretched out.<\/span><\/p>\n

Right as the stick dipped into the orange slime, I smiled. Then, I lost my balance. I flailed out and caught one of the dock’s posts. I was aware that I didn’t want to fall in and that it wasn’t because I didn’t want to get wet.<\/span><\/p>\n

I felt, for all the life in me, like falling into that water would be the end of me. It was like a great shark yawned its mouth open just below the surface.<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, I righted myself and looked back out. The bloom was a little farther out than it had been. The stick floated stuck into its edge.<\/span><\/p>\n

I felt taunted and stormed back to the cabin.<\/span><\/p>\n

Inside, I went back to work on my notes. The bloom and Lester’s apocalyptic predictions had unsettled me. I threw myself into the work hoping to forget.<\/span><\/p>\n

But there, scattered among the countless stories and notes, was the hint of something else. I couldn’t quite make it out, but I knew it was there and I knew it was bad. I was on the edge of an epiphany when there came a knock on the door.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was Reggie and Mary, inviting me to join them for dinner. I accepted and spent the evening in their company. The offer of a small kindness sometimes make a world of difference. The value of a friend is something much under appreciated.<\/span><\/p>\n

By the time I got back, I had forgotten my worries and typed up a pretty good article for the Register. I said nothing about blooms.<\/span><\/p>\n

I sent it off to my editor with a note stating that I’d like to stay at the lake for a few more days.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

next part<\/span><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

back to previous episode<\/a><\/p>\n

back to list of stories<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Joe Stanley 2 After a light breakfast, I moved around the lake introducing myself and meeting the folks that lived there. Most were retired. There were a few properties that had been passed along by inheritance so there was a small number of younger people as well. A few even recognized me from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1194","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonathanharker.co.uk\/theghostlyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonathanharker.co.uk\/theghostlyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonathanharker.co.uk\/theghostlyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonathanharker.co.uk\/theghostlyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonathanharker.co.uk\/theghostlyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1194"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/jonathanharker.co.uk\/theghostlyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3051,"href":"https:\/\/jonathanharker.co.uk\/theghostlyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1194\/revisions\/3051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonathanharker.co.uk\/theghostlyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}