This morning was exciting because I was going back to the
pond and the raft we had been working on all of three days was almost done. We
had just used junk we found around the pond to build the raft, and had lashed
it together, so I finished off my egg, bacon, and toast had a few words with
Grandma after washing up, and was in a hurry to be on my way. I had found the
pond on my 2nd day in the neighborhood. It was down a street or two
at the end of a road by the train tracks. I was loaded with frogs, minnows, a
few sucker fish and a occasional perch, sunfish a rumored bass or such, and it
had turtles sunny themselves on logs, all kinds of turtles, and snapping
turtles, swim with you’re a shoes on don’t touch turtles, and the biggest
sunned themselves all day on a log near the center of the pond. The pond was
maybe the size of a football field scrunched funny. It had its main area and
lots of little swampy inlets and a few muddy beaches. I met Paul on my second
day of vacation when I found the pond. He had called over at me while I was
using the refuse around the pond to gain head over the water teetering and
balancing along rocks and logs. We became instant friends, because he needed my
help to catch “The biggest snapping turtle in the lake.” adding “Way out
there”; he pointed, on that log. I covered my eyes and spy the log that lay
near the unapproachable side of the pond where only tall reeds, cat tails, and
grass lay, just below the train tracks.
“Out there” I asked lifting my arm and pointing, with the
most dubious of looks on my face.
“Yeah” He replied “You see they way you catch a snapping
turtle is you get them to grab a stick, and then you grab them, simple.” And he
swung his arm and snapped which I thought was pretty cool. He wore blue jeans
and a dirty old white T- shirt rolled at the sleeves. His hair was a dirty
blond; he had light freckles and gray eyes seeming to be of light character
which in difference to the way he carried himself.
“Hi. I’m Paul” and he shoved out his hand. We shook and that
was that.
So here we are shoes muddy already, jumping on at the last
second and launching our make shift raft which was not what you call meant to
last, it had a shelf life, so the longer we pushed it with a long pole, paddled
it out in the pond the more it strained against its bonds of plastic, rope
wire, and what-evers we had painstakingly sent out to create our raft that was
shaking, and pulling at its bonds from the start as we went. This was our 2nd
day at this, we had found early on that turtles spook easy and now had to
almost drift when we got close to the log. The water was never clear, it had a
dark green or light tan color, and it stank. Each push with the pole pulled up
a gas bubble of pond funk. We had tried everything to catch a snapping turtle,
everything but a good net, but what parent is going to give a kid a net for a
snapping turtle, and what kid was going to tell of his secret mission for the
day. Every morning I would grab a fishing pole and it would sit by the pond
some of the time. In the water green patches of algae mixed with other of
shades plants littered the pond, so I had been all around it’s sides. We knew
we entered the deep part now. This was a mud pond there was no bottom in
respects to footing all sunken logs and mud. On top of the water lay lily pads
with their occasional flower bright yellow and white shinning on top of the
green and dark water and the floating patches of green algae. Your eye could
get lost in them for they seemed so out of place like a lone star on a hazy
night with flashes of light as an occasional ripple disturbed the water and was
gone. We had to paddle now, using small flat boards we pushed our craft across
the pond towards the far side towards the log, and getting up speed for a
second until we stopped hunkered down and stayed still allowing our push to
drift us slowly towards the log where lay the sleeping turtles. It was mid-day
and hot with the sun beating down. We looked across the dark water spying the
snapping turtle “Big Jim” as we called him laying sunning, looking off in the
distance. We drifted closer, and immobile lay upon a raft of hope. Just a few
feet and Paul leans forward with the stick, now to tell you Big Jim was from
where I saw a lay on the far side of the small raft guiding us in looked all business even from
the side view, his claws noticeably gouging into the log, and his shell
beginning to dwarf the other turtles still all unmoving on the shared log that
stretched way into pond and resurfaced some tree a few years back that had
toppled into the pond. Paul made a go for it with a quick thrust, and turtles
starting diving into the water everywhere, Big Jim grabbed the stick, just
plain bit the end of the thing, and Paul’s starts whooping and pulling and Big
Jim jumps of the other side of the log right, simple story right, nope. You see
while Paul was hanging on to big Jim I was hanging on to Paul and the stick
holding us in place while lying on the raft, which by this time in the battle
was turning into a pile of logs floating underneath my belly in sort of a
square. Big Jim let go; I think it is important to explain gravity in
childhood, we got the idea in school, the apple thing, but real life happens
way to fast to figure much, gravity took over with a momentary pause where I
was looking at Paul’s mad face cause he was so close he felt to getting Big Jim,
and then one of surprise as he hurtled in my direction, I was always faster
than most people and knew he was headed my way and had long let go his leg. I
rolled sideways just as he crash landed next to me which was all the raft needed
to quite its contract. It broke apart in the middle of the pond with board and
logs all convinced they were in revolt against any further work , the two of us
had to swim through the long part of the pond to get to the other side a muddy
bottom but no pond slime, or we could get out twenty feet away to the short
side. We swam pushing the muck and pond slime a head of us; I laughing at the
adventure, and Paul yelling over and over “We almost had him.” “We almost had
him” in his ferocity of the battle, I took one more look at his face and went
into laugh hysterics one big ball of laughing took me over and I had to fight
even harder thought the muck. We made the side both covered in foul pond scum
from head to toe, clasping onto the muddy bank and climbing up on our bellies
using the long grass on the side of the pond we finally pulled ourselves out. I
was still laughing, Paul had got quiet, but the same look lay in his eye when I
turned finally to look at him after my fit had subsided. He was looking out
across the water, the five minutes it took us to climb out, the days of
planning, just another part of his overall
summer battle, to get big Jim, and that same look lay on his face right now.
We got, well I got in a lot of trouble, filthy slimy, muddy
I ran back to grandma’s up the street full of stories for all of it was new to
me the adventure, what I got was stripped down and hosed in the backyard with
cold water, than right in the tub, with “How could you?”, and “I never.” As
Grandma first hosed down a child that really did not want to be, whom at first
darted to and fro in little moves, until standing still naked in the backyard
finally humiliated and out of "It's cold!" squeals, but later she
would smile at my antics and gyrations while telling the story over dinner. The
shock of naked hosing in the back yard and grandma’s ministrations having worn
off, I was at it full tilt, telling my story jumping out of my seat and being
generally way too much kid at the table and all around. I was wearing Grandpa
and Grandma out in short order, this would be my last year as a grandchild
unattended by parents while at or shipped to Aunts and Uncles, like I said
“Cousins, cousins everywhere.”
THOR
#THOR
