“God, you make me wish I was an only child!” That was the last thing Gerard said to Sammy. They had been swimming with some of the neighbor kids that afternoon. Gerard had been feeling sick all afternoon. So, when all the other kids had gone home he wanted to go home too. But Sammy loved to swim and he refused to get out of the water. Finally, Gerard dried off and demanded that his little brother do the same. But what kind of little brother would he be if he did as he was told all the time? Gerard glared at a bottle cap at his feet. Frustrated and on the verge of vomiting chili dog right there where he stood, he yelled as cruelly as he could, saying thing the first thing that came to mind. No sooner had he said it, did the splashing stop… The pond was all but still accept for some subtle ripples emanating from where Sammy had been a moment earlier. At first, Gerard thought it was a joke. But after his brother didn’t rise to the surface, he quickly jumped in… but to his eternal dismay, he couldn’t find his brother. During the following weeks the police would not find his brother either. A funeral would come and go but Gerard just couldn’t shake the feeling that his brother was still alive somewhere. More time passed. Gerard’s father would take extra shifts at work just to avoid coming home. His mother would sit in Sammy’s room whimpering at all hours of the day and night. Three months passed slowly… like a cold winter that would never end. People avoided Gerard at school. It was like he was diseased. They probably just didn’t know what to say. Six months passed and it seemed like it had been an eternity since he had seen his brother. His grades were steadily spiraling downward. Not that anyone cared. That day, he would return to Hogan’s Pond, wishing for a second chance. But he didn’t, for one instant, think he would get one.
He sat, hopeless and downhearted staring into the murky water. No one came here anymore. There were too many horror stories about the kid who drowned here. Some even said that Gerard was the one who drowned him. With that thought his eyes clouded with tears. “Damn it all!” He thought to himself. “I may as well have. He was just a little kid and I left him in the water by himself.” His Mom and Dad would never say so, but he knew they blamed him too.
“I’d do anything to get you back.” He whispered aloud.
At that, he heard a slight splash. “Probably a fish.” He thought. But his heart was pounding in his ears and he was holding his breath scanning the surface of the pond for any signs of movement. He finally exhaled and told himself he was stupid for hoping. His brother was dead and gone. Probably pulled down by an alligator or bitten by a water snake. He was probably somewhere beneath the mud at the bottom of the pond if he wasn’t fish food. The sooner he accepted this the better. He turned to walk away. But before he could, there was another splash. It was a much bigger one this time. He spun around and looked back to see ripples in the exact same spot he had last seen his brother. That would have had to have been a pretty good sized fish! He stepped cautiously closer to the bank. Again, a splash! But this time he saw what looked like a small boy’s hand brush the surface of the water. He gasped in horror. He didn’t care if he was crazy. He dove in and swam like an Olympic athlete to the center of the pond where he saw the splash. He arrived to find nothing there so he took a deep breath and plunged head first down, down, further still. He felt something slimy brush his cheek. Though startled, he kept pushing onward down deeper into the cold, muddy darkness. Nothing. His chest burned and when he couldn’t hold his breath any more, he turned around and started kicking for the surface. He searched for the light of day, which should have been shimmering downward but he couldn’t see it. He kicked harder and began slowly letting the air seep out of his lungs. Suddenly his head hit something hard. It was the bottom of the pond! In the murkiness he had become disoriented. He pushed his feet against the bottom and shoved hard. Panicking, he sucked in a mouthful of mossy water. This must have been how his brother had felt. His muscles were now running on pure adrenalin and he knew that if he didn’t reach the surface soon, he would be done for. Just then he broke the surface and took in lungs-full of air that he had never appreciated so much before. He just floated on his back for a moment, letting the oxygen penetrate his body. He felt it filling his limbs once more, giving him life. He stroked backwards and heaved himself up onto the shore. Then he realized that it was almost pitch black outside. Had the sun set that quickly? He looked up to find that he was inside some kind of underground cave. Was this what happened to Sam? Maybe his brother was alive after all and he had just been stuck in here this whole time.
“Sammy?” He called into the cavern. But only an echo of his own voice replied. He called out his brother’s name over and over again. But finally just sat down on the bank and sank his face into his arms. He stared intently at the muddy earth at his feet. His cloths were soaked and he was beginning to feel the cold penetrating his flesh.
