The Creature From The Black Lagoon Swam In Our Pool

by Bob Bradshaw

 

 My brother said The Creature
 had been spotted in our neighborhood.
 Jim had a description
 of the thing.  A face
 like a rubbery mask.
 How will I know for sure it's him
 I asked my brother.
 "He has gills, duh."
  
 My brother said The Creature
 probably was just some guy
 who'd wandered out
 from a costume party
 and was swimming
 in neighbors' pools.
 But who knew?  Maybe
 The Creature really was
 a living fossil.
 
 I knew my brother
 and his dufus friends
 were watching me
 through the venetian slats
 like duck hunters
 behind a duck blind.   I sat in the pool's shallow end.
 Darkness was settling in like silt.
 
 I was a little wary
 of my brother's story
 but the mystery of a creature
 who'd survived the Amazon
 for millions of years
 swimming in our pool
 was too great a dream
 not to believe in.
 
 I was beginning to nod off
 when something grazed me
 as it swam past.
 Then it disappeared
 into the pool's deep end.
 I jumped out of the pool
 and ran inside.  My brother
 and his pals were asleep
 on the rug.  I saw it,
 I saw it. "What?"
 they snarled. 
 They were bleary
 eyed.   We went outside and stood
 on the pool's edge.
 No one believes
 the sightings
 of Loch Ness either.  They
 straggled back inside
 shaking their heads
 at the doofiness
 of Jim's younger
 brother.  I stared
 into the pool
 as if it were a dark mirror.
 My brother came out
 and threw his arm
 around my shoulders.
 "You know I wouldn't lie
 to you," he confided.
 "I've seen it
 too."