Bungee Cord
12-18-12

Hello,

     Here’s the first half of a little Christmas story that I wrote some years ago:

   “No Swimming.  No Fishing.  No Boating.”  So said the sign that stood on the banks of what everyone called Peabody’s Pond.  They called it that because people said that years ago Old Man Peabody lived right next the pond in a dilapidated shack, and when he lived there the pond was so different.  It was a favorite swimming hole for the town kids.  And when they weren’t swimming in it, they would be fishing in it, catching fish big enough to feed the whole town, or so the story goes.  Old Man Peabody lived by the pond and he delighted in having the children come out and enjoy the pond.  But the pond changed after Old Man Peabody died.  No one really knows who became the owner of the pond, but who ever it was began to use the pond as a dump.  Refrigerators and old car tires lay on the pond’s bed.  Broken glass was strewn all along its shore, and the color of the water was a yellowish black, dotted with oil slicks.  And that is why the sigh stood there next to Peabody’s Pond, “No swimming. No Fishing.  No Boating.”

     Actually, there really wasn’t any need to post a sign, at least not for the kids who lived around there, because every parent drilled the message into their children’s mind.  Absolutely – and under no circumstances – were they to go swimming, fishing or boating in Peabody’s Pond.  There was acid in the pond that would burn holes in their skin. There was glass all over the place that would cut them like shark’s teeth.  There chemicals that would fill their bodies full of cancer.  Every parent told their children, “Absolutely – and under no circumstance – were they to go swimming, fishing, or boating in Peabody’s Pond.”

     Betsy and Rosemary were sisters who lived right down the road from Peabody’s Pond.  Living out in the country and only being a year apart in age, they were not only sisters.  They were the closest of friends.  They did everything together.   They played dress up and checkers.  They ran around the house playing hide and seek.  They rode their bides all around the countryside,…… and they had been given the lecture, more than once, “No swimming.  No fishing.  No boating.  In Peabody’s Pond.”

     One day as they were riding their bikes along the country roads they came up to a bend a bend where the trees and the brush hid what might have been coming from the other side.  Maybe they were watching a hawk soaring in the sky, or maybe they saw a butterfly settling on a flower by the roadside – but whatever the case, they weren’t being careful and they forgot to slow down going into the bend.  This time when they turned into the bend they were greeted by a blare of a horn and the screeching of tires as a car tried to stop from hitting them.  But it couldn’t.  Betsy swerved just in time to be missed, but Rosemary did not.  The front bumper of the car tagged her bicycle and sent her flying off the road….flying of the road right into Peabody’s Pond.

     The car stopped.  The driver got out and ran to the edge of the pond, as did Betsy.  From the edge of the pond they could see Rosemary struggling in the water, trying to keep her head above the surface.  “Help!” she cried, “I’m hurt.  I can’t swim.  My foot is caught on something.”

     The driver did not budge.  “I’m not going in there,” said the driver as he stood right under the sign that warned, “No Swimming.  No Fishing.  No Boating.”

     “You girls should have been watching where you were going.  I am NOT going in that pond.”

…….to be continued next week.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace,

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger