Swim With Me

                  

Wasn't it amazing that Carol and her husband have always wanted to have their private pool that was flashy crimson? Perhaps they were influenced by one of their recent trips to Asia when they swam heartily in red clad pools. So when the pair negotiated with the house broker, they made sure he included the inscribed pool in the deal. 

Now Carol and Tim had a 2 year-old son who was not afraid of the water pool at all. In fact, Carol always made time for Harold, helping him make a splash in the pool as he pleased. Carol was both ecstatic and apprehensive that her toddler had real fondness for swimming. "Maybe he's the next Michael Phelps!" she beamed. 

One afternoon, however, a turbulent event came about. She momentarily gasped for breath when she reached the rails of the pool. But she was pretty sure she was holding onto her son's fragile arm. But at that second, her grip of him was not felt. And she panicked mightily. "Where the hell is he?" she turned her head around.

The she screamed for about five to six seconds, galvanizing her neighbors. One of them, Mrs. Kettles, rushed to the backyard entrance and approached Carol in a melancholy but stern way. "What happened?" she asked at once.

And Carol pointed at the center of the pool."There's blood!" she told them confidently."A lot of blood!". 

And a reverberating giggle caught all of their attention. Spread on the green grass was Harold, sucking his thumb as he looked all the way up to the clear lit sky. He seemed so comfortable, with no cares in this world. 

Carol ran to her son and wrapped him in her bosom. "How did you get in here?" She was shaking.

Another neighbor, Mr. Willie, who was a bit cranky, warned that Carol shouldn't be so careless next time. Because even if she cried "Fire!" he wouldn't budge. 

Soon after, Carol collected her guts and retold her husband Tim about her confusing episodic moment with Harold. She couldn't calculate how he got out of the water and crawl into the grass. 

"You're just imagining things. Maybe you were swimming too hard."

Carol fidgeted on her bed."And he wasn't wet when I held him."

When Tim asked to leave for a work appointment, Carol came across a carved medium sized box inside the glass cased shelf near Tim's desk. She deliberately examined the contents of the antique box and picked a photo frame. It was a bright cheery picture of a wholesome family of four, swimming together. 

As the weary days passed by, Carol limited her time in their pool. And she even discouraged Harold from taking a dip in the pool, warning him about "baby sharks." She could never shake off from her mind the bloody memory she viewed from the center of the pool. 

The greatest shock of her life arrived when he spotted a forlorn man wandering in their backyard. And alas! The stranger had the nerve to actually wade his feet into the pool area. 

"Excuse me Mr. but you're trespassing."

"I owned this pool once. It was mine." The voice echoed from a deep end.

"Really? When...was that? Before we came here?"

"World War 11..."

Carol almost burst laughing. But she felt cold when she saw the man wearing a soldier's cap. She felt all the more tremor when he saw his eyes shimmering. 

"They took them away. My wife, my daughter and  my son...while I was away fighting..."

Carol bit her lower lip. This was getting real."Who took them away?".

And the stranger wept. "They accused me of being a spy for the Russian Army."

Carol stepped backwards. The image of the man was getting hazier. "What did they do to your family?".

"They electrocuted them...with a special equipment...while they were swimming."

Carol wanted to take a very deep breath.'Why are you telling me all these?".

The man snapped. "Because your son is next!".

"My son?".

"Your husband is a descendant of my family's attacker. He is going to pay."

The man choked her. "When your boy reaches the age of twelve, he is going to drown like my son did." His eyes bulged into bloody sockets."And no one is going to stop it."