Transparent Enemy

It was another normal summer day for me; I was about the house living my life to the fullest by eating as much as I possibly could fit in my flabby stomach and then laying around on the couch.

The day was humid, and the sun was scorching ever so aggressively that I could barely open my eyes when I looked outside through the window in my living room. 

Ignoring the intense heat, I strolled out to my backyard and layed in the tall, green grass. Feeling the tingling of the grass scratch my skin relaxed me, so I closed my eyes and inhaled the lively smell of the world outside, my mind drifting away from reality as I fell asleep again.

When I woke up, I trotted back into my house to relieve some of the heat that was burning my body. Upon returning to my house, I heard my mother calling my name just a few minutes later.

Ugh. It sounded like she was down in the basement, and I was on the first floor. I didn’t want to have to run down a flight of stairs for her; besides, I normally never listened to her when she called me.

I stayed in my current spot on the couch and ignored the noisy sounds coming from the basement, but soon I heard footsteps crawling up the basement stairs, and my mother appeared right in front of me.

“There you are!” she cheerfully said as she bent down and picked me up, lifting me by my armpits. 

She held me and marched down a flight of stairs to the basement, heading all the way towards— oh no! No, no, no, no! She was taking me to the room I hated most in the house, and I knew that something unspeakable was going to happen there.

It was time for me to face my worst fear again— facing my arch nemesis. In a moment, I was going to be in the room where my arch nemesis would battle me, and I would put up a good fight until the end, but I would still end up losing to my abhorrent enemy. It always happened that way. 

I waved my arms around vigorously and wiggled my body, trying to get away from my mother’s arms so that I could head back upstairs and avoid facing the dreaded room where my dreaded arch nemesis was. 

Unfortunately, my strength was not enough to overcome the grasp of my mother, so I was trapped in the room I hated with the door shut behind me.

There it was. My arch nemesis sitting there right before me. The menacing look of the transparent water flowing in the tub in the bathroom was enough to make me tremble in fear. I sat in the corner of the bathroom as far away from the water as I could. All four of my paws tightly gripped the slippery tiles of the floor, not wanting to have to leave the floor to go into the tub. I was scooting so close to the wall, I could feel my tail compressed against the wall in an uncomfortable figuration. A gap formed between each of my fingers because of the tension spreading through my paws. As I stared straight at the water in the bathtub, it stared back at me.

“At last we meet again, little dog. I will undoubtedly destroy you once again!” the enormous amount of water in the bathtub seemed to be shouting at me. 

I hated the feeling of uneasiness I felt now. The water in the bathtub was mocking me, continuously taunting my fear by shouting out insults.

“Why are you hiding in the corner, dog? Are you afraid of your indisputable defeat? Hahahahaha! How funny you look right now, quivering with terror at the sight of me!” the water continued to rage.

“I’m not afraid of you!” I shouted back at the water. Though my voice sounded shrill and dainty, I felt my confidence increase as I barked back at the water.

Then came the time when my mother lifted me once more by my armpits and dropped me mercilessly in the gigantic tub of water. 

“Hahaha! Haha!” the water’s frightening laugh roared over and over, louder each time while I sat soaked in the vastness of the never ending water. 

The chill of the water creeped up my body, and I couldn’t stop shaking as the water kept on pouring over me. It was as if my mind went into a total daze the whole time I sat in the bathtub. I was scrubbed with all sorts of strange fragrances, and the bristles of a brush kept on prodding me. 

I was sure I looked like a complete idiot with water dripping down my whole entire body. This was my worst fear— the water becoming part of me. It clung to every piece of fur hanging on my body and weighed me down to the depths of the tub. I felt so heavy, even heavier than before when I had eaten a monstrous amount of kibble, except the kibble I ate before left me feeling like a good kind of heavy. Now, I felt a very abominable kind of heavy.

This water would be the end of me! I was going to die in the bathtub, having lost pathetically to the sickening water. Why was my mother treating me with this cruel and unusual punishment! I felt as if I had already been in the tub of water for years and that I would never be able to get out.

But then, a miracle happened! I was slowly dragged out of the bathtub, and I was sitting on the white bathroom tiles again. I was finally free from the dreaded water, and as I watched the water disappear down the drain, I laughed uncontrollably!

I had finally won against my arch nemesis! I shook my body unwaveringly to rid myself of any water remaining in my fur. 

Once I was dry again, I was as carefree as I ever could be. I sauntered over to the backyard again, and dug a hole in the ground out of excitement. I liked the scent of the dirt on me rather than the peculiar aroma of the products I had been scrubbed with. 

I sat in the grass with the dirt surrounding me and then spotted my mother coming outside. She stopped from a distance when she saw me and yelled angrily, “Beanie!!”