The Tall pine and the Pond

The rain drops slapped the water's edge to a rhythm no one could imitate.

Sitting beneath the Tall Pine listening to the sweet music nearly sleeping though soaked to the bone, Jack was relaxed.

His mother would kill him if she found out where he was. This pond, large and oval in shape, is said to be the graveyard of many men.

Jack chuckled at that, as dark a joke that may seem he doesn't think that this place would be such a horrible place to die.

On clear nights the stars reflect right back into the sky and no tree branch dares block the pond's view of the sky above. The sunniest of days have seen this pond and yet no algae grows, no plants to be seen and no one who has gone in has ever come back...

Rumors around town spew hatred towards this body of water, only few dare look at it curiously.

Jack of course held no fear of this place.

This was his sanctum. A place of rest away from the bothersome townspeople and a worrisome mother.

His eyes drew too heavy to fight with any longer and he drifted to sleep.

She had the right to be worried about this pond though, his mother that is.

She never told Jack where his father actually went. She had told him a lie that his father was a drunkard and died in a brawl two towns over. The rest of the people in town received this story as well. Mary was the only one who knew the truth and she was the only one who was there.

They had gotten engaged under this tree, planned their future far away from prying eyes. Jack's father was handsome and brave with a smile like no other. He swam in the pond only twice; the first time was shortly after he and Mary were officially husband and wife and she screamed at him while he laughed. He had gotten out and apologized for scaring her but he just wanted to show that it was just a pond.

Mary had rolled her eyes and grabbed her husband's face to kiss him just for them to fall to the ground beneath that Tall Pine tree Jack was conceived.

The second time Jack's father swam in the pond it was not so forgiving.

The sun was soaking through the trees Jack nestled in a basket filled with blankets; the other basket his father was carrying contained cheese and wine to celebrate this happy family trip. Little baby Jack slept the whole way through his mother and fathers charming date. His mother had a bad feeling she asked Jack's father to leave.

"The sunlight is pouring through the trees there's not even a reflection in that water but its pitch black, it's making me uneasy love I don't want Jack near it!"

His father laughed.

"This again Darling?!? I promise it's just a pond and the boy can't lift his head, much less make way to the water! We are safe here."

Mary scowled at him.

"I don't have a good feeling about it right now. I really think we should leave."

He rolled his eyes and said

"I guess there's only one way to prove it to you huh?" wiggling his eyebrows and grinning he started to undress.

"What are you doing?" she said startled

He turned to her and said "I'm going swimming!"

Before Mary could protest he dove in. She watched the water holding her breath only for her husband to come up laughing!

"You should see your face right now my dear Mary!"

"You fool!" She scoffed, " You need to get out of there right now!"

"What are you so afraid of?"

"Something isn't right about that pond I'm telling you!"

"Well my dear it's just a pond and I shall prove it to you"

"How do you suppose--"

He had disappeared beneath the surface again only this time he wouldn't be back.

One minute turned to five and Mary started screaming for her husband to come up. She plunged her hands into the water trying to see if she could grab him if she could bring him back. Sobbing, she took off her dress and dove in. She saw nothing, She felt nothing, but she heard Jack scream and suddenly found herself on the waters edge.....completely dry, aside from the tears streaming down her face.

He was gone. The pond had swallowed him whole. Jack red faced and completely in a tantrum screaming at the top of his lungs pulled her from her trance she picked him up and left everything behind. Her husband was gone but her son was not and she swore that she'd never let him near this damned place.

And she didn't let him near it; he had found it on his own.

He was a small boy at the time maybe five when he had wandered off while playing outside. There is no path to the pond but the boy found himself there all the same. He had looked in the water and found it strange he couldn't see anything. Jack reached his arm down blindly looking for frogs. Finding nothing, not even rocks, he realized there was no gradient to the pond; it was a solid drop a hole with water in it really. He picked his hand up and brought it to himself; his stomach dropped just a little. He was scared just a bit. He told himself not to be a baby yet still backed away from the pond he turned to look at The Pine.

Head arched back Jack looked to the very top of The Pine. It was full and a deep green aside from the cones that were getting ready to fall. He thought a pine cone fell into the water. He heard a splash and ran to the tree gripping it tightly. His stomach hurt, it was in knots because he was scared. He told himself don't be a baby.

Looking over his shoulder he saw by the edge of the pond sat a picnic basket.

He looked around and didn't see anyone.

He opened the basket and there was some cheese and half a bottle of wine....... So he did what any five year old would do: he brought it home to his mother.

She nearly fainted at the sight of that basket.

Jack didn't understand what was wrong; he thought he was in trouble.

She grabbed him by his shoulders grilling him about where he had been where he had gotten this from.

He lied he said he had found the basket in town and said that he was just playing hide and seek with his friends. He maintained that he didn't steal it but that a man had given it to him to take to her because his wife didn't like them.

Jack held firm to his story and eventually she dropped it apologizing for treating him so harshly but then scolded him not to take things from strangers.

That was a first in the long list of lies he would tell his mother.

Jack slowly woke to a moonlit night and a clear sky.

He was still soaked from the rain but it appears the clouds had dissipated. However his resting place left him with pine needle filled hair. He couldn't walk home with this in his hair. It wouldn't match the story he gave his mother. He knelt down next to the water's edge and was rinsing the pine out of his hair when he realized the water was surprisingly warm. Being chilled to the bone he figured a dip before heading home wouldn't hurt. He could always say he fell in a puddle.

Jack jumped into the water fully clothed and felt nothing but warmth.

All of a sudden he found his feet firmly planted on the ground in the middle of a dirt path.

Confused, he turned about. The trees weren't the same as home, the road was dirt and stretched for miles and to top it all off it was daylight.

"Where the hell am I?"

His head started spiraling how on earth could he lie his way out of this. How did he get here, How was he going to get home?

Turning again he saw a man with a donkey and a cart and he stopped the man.

"Where am I"

the old man chuckled "Lost are ye?"

"Completely. I was in a pond two seconds ago!! I must've crawled out and wondered off. Mother always told me to stop laying in the rain and that I would get sick but I never thought this could happen!"

The old man's eyes grew wide and then narrowed. "A pond you say?"

"Yes!" Jack proclaimed "Is it nearby if I could find it I can find my way home! I can't be more than a few miles away perhaps over a ridge?"

The old man laughed and said, "You poor boy, there is no way back from where you came."

Jack was confused and flustered "What do you mean I can't have walked far and certainly not to the point of no return!" Jack laughed nervously.

The old man didn't move and stared silently with one eyebrow arched letting Jack figure it out on his own.

"WHERE AM I?!?"

"Now there's no need for yelling, there's still plenty of room in town for lost folks like you. We get yous folks over here every now and again."

"Lost folks?" Jack's tone softened.

"You think you're the first one to take a dip in that pond huh boy?"

Jack had the look of a lost puppy strewn across his face.

"There's even more than one. Several ponds, a well, a section of river that everyone on your side avoids."

Mumbling Jack repeats "more than one...."

"The towns by these places usually have legends to stay out of these places. A lot of people on your side believe you die and they believe countless have died going into the water. But they don't die, they end up here somehow."

Jack slowly blinking looks at the old man. "There's more people like me?"

The old man laughs "There's a whole town of lost folk up ahead it's where I'm headed, off selling my wares."

Jack proceeds to ask the old man for a ride and asks him a flurry of questions to which the man humbly answers.

As they reach the town Jack realizes he's chewed this poor man's ear for the better part of an hour and he apologizes.

The old man shrugs the apology off "I was just like you to a man that fell through a pond like that that's how I came to know all these things, The names Davey by the way."

"Thank you Davey for everything."

He shrugged it off again. "It's the least I could do for someone whos been completely uprooted."

That's when it hit Jack.

Davey said no one makes it home.

His mother will think him dead.

She'll think he followed in his drunken footsteps and died in a ditch somewhere towns away.

Jack's stomach twisted and he got sick off the side of the cart just outside of town.

Jack blinked slowly and heard mens voices just outside the room he was in. He recognized Davey's voice but not the other mans.

Jack sat up still not feeling quite well and examined his room. It didn't look like any inn he had ever been to. There were trinkets and books wall to wall.

He wasn't in an inn, he was in someone's home and being quite rude at that.

He plucked himself out of bed only to find himself in a nightshirt and fresh briefs. His other clothes nowhere to be found he braved exiting the room in his night garments to at least find the master of the house and thank him.

He found the men's voices coming from one room over and crept to the door to see exactly to whom the voices belonged to.

Davey sat across from a man in a very distinguished looking chair surrounded by books and letters.

The man in the chair had his back to him but Jack could see a gold wedding band on his hand and when Davey noticed Jack in the doorway the man turned to him and smiled widely.

The man stood up from the chair and was wearing a shirt with long sleeves that exposed his chest and one smooth grey stone set in a leather necklace.

Jack looked confused at the stone, It didn't seem anything more than a dull grey river rock.

Realizing he was starring, Jack in an effort to be polite said "That's a unique necklace you have there."

The man looking sorrowful glanced down at the necklace and said "Thank you, it's all I have left of home and it was supposed to be a gift."