Two Frozen Ponds

Two frozen ponds

I don’t quite understand what happened yesterday. I am still trying to make sense of it all. Frankie and Rob were both there - and they cannot explain it either.

We went to the pond on Tuesday for two reasons: to investigate the rumble all three of us heard the night before and also to check if the recent cold weather helped with our plans to play ice hockey.

I have had trouble sleeping lately. My dad says it is because of the video games I’ve been playing relentlessly. He even told me that he sincerely regrets getting me a Sega Mega Drive for Christmas. I am sure he doesn’t actually mean it, since he and mum can finally enjoy their evenings in peace, watching their favourite TV shows downstairs and doing their grown-up things in the bedroom while I try to master the Spring Yard Zone in “Sonic the Hedgehog”. It has been a lot of fun, especially when Rob, Betty and Frankie came over for a sleepover last week. We stayed up all night and by sunrise our eyes were bloodshot but still glued to the flickering screen.

On Monday evening I told my parents I will go to my room around 8 pm, right after dinner. They didn’t seem to mind.

I was concentrating on the final level of the Spring Yard when I heard this noise. At first, I thought it was a low-flying aeroplane or some sort of souped-up motorcycle going down the dirt road towards the town centre, but the sound was higher-pitched and much whinier, almost like a mosquito amplified several thousand times.

And then came the rumble. I felt the whole house move. I’ve never experienced an earthquake - we don’t get those here in Minnesota - but I imagine it probably feels similar. I heard the front door squeak open and saw dad standing on the porch, looking around. I opened the window and asked him what that sound was. He told me he thinks it must have been some sort of underground explosion, maybe coming from the coal mines up north. He was cross with me because I wasn’t in my pyjamas.

The next day, by the time I finished my breakfast, consisting of a bowl of Kellogg’s Frosties topped with whole milk, Frankie and Rob were standing outside. They both had very red faces and were dressed in their warmest winter coats, both grinning through chattering teeth.

My mum instructed me to keep my coat buttoned up all the way and my mittens on at all times. After I lost another pair of those last week, she sewed a rubber band to my new mittens and pulled it through the sleeves of my brown coat. I really hated that coat; it was the most uncomfortable piece of clothing I’ve ever owned and it really restricted my movements. The mittens on a rubber band made it look even worse and made me feel like I was five all over again!

The sun was shining bright and the sky was the bluest of blues, but the air was so cold that I felt it rush down my airways and into my lungs as soon as I opened the front door.

“Hey Jonny, how are you?” - yelled Frankie, jumping from one foot to the other, trying to keep warm. “It is freezing, so we better get going!”

“Sure! Shall we take the forest road or go through the quarry?” - my hands were already itchy in the mittens.

“I think the quarry can be a bit too slippery and will take longer - so I vote for the forest” - said Rob, who is the most pragmatic out of us three. He was wearing the most hilarious wool hat I have ever seen, with red and pink and white stripes on it. His grandma probably made it for him.

“Please be back by lunch! And don’t forget to keep those mittens on!” - said mum and tried to give me a smooch on the cheek, but I managed to squeeze right past her and onto the porch. She always keeps embarrassing me in front of my friends!

We started walking down the dirt road, past the church and Mr Jenkins farm.

“My mum said that the temperature dropped to minus 30F last night, can you imagine that? I am pretty sure our pond should be nicely frozen! I’ve cleaned my skates yesterday and they look awesome now. Cannot say the same about the stick - it is really starting to fall apart” - said Frankie. He is definitely the most experienced hockey player amongst us and can even do some cool tricks with the puck.

I wasn’t feeling particularly enthusiastic about the great outdoors so I told Frankie that I would much rather stay in and play “Sonic”, because I made it to the Labyrinth zone last night and I don’t like hockey that much, especially when it is so cold outside.

“I like that game, but if you play it too much it will make your brain melt out of your ears. I’ve heard it on TV” - Rob was making fun of me. Or maybe he actually believed that brain-melting nonsense.

I’ve asked them about the rumble.

“Oh yes, I heard it too. I thought it was a plane or something. Maybe military flying by?” - said Frankie.

“Maybe it was a little earthquake? My window was open when it happened and I could hear Mr Jenkins chickens go bananas” - Rob was rubbing his forehead with his mitten, itchy from the wool hat.

The view from the north-western side of the forest towards Malardi lake is one of my favourites. On a clear day like this you can almost make up the skyline of Minneapolis in the distance. I breathed in the view mixed with some of the coldest air I’ve ever experienced in my 10 years of being alive.

The pond has frozen overnight and was now reflecting the sun like a giant mirror, glimmering down below.

“Shall we go back for the skates and sticks?” - Frankie was eager to get playing.

“Nah, let’s just go down for a second. We have the whole day ahead. I wanna see what’s that dark thing in there” - said Rob and pointed his finger towards the eastern edge of the pond.

The ice was definitely darker there, but I thought that it must just be the light reflecting in a weird way. Without too long of a discussion we found the frozen trail that went straight to the edge of the pond and slid down on our butts, which was quite fun.

The sun was so bright that the surface of the pond was painful to look at. I thought that I wouldn’t mind a pair of sunglasses there and then.

It was eerily quiet on the pond. No wind to rustle the frozen trees, no birds to disrupt the stagnant air with their songs.

“You’re It” - suddenly yelled Rob and started running.

“Come here, you bastard!” - Frankie was already chasing him.

Running on such a cold day warms you up quickly, but the frosty air really hurts your lungs. I was sweating like crazy when we finally caught up with Rob, who was standing on the ice, looking down.

“Guys, GUYS! Check this out! What is this thing?”

There was something under the ice, right where it was a slightly darker colour. We couldn’t quite figure it out, but it was big and frozen solid. Rob started clearing away the thin layer of fluffy snow that was covering the surface.

The ice itself was quite clear and when our eyes were finally accustomed to the brightness of it, we started seeing the overall shape of the object stuck in the pond. It looked like a big disc, maybe 50 feet or so in diameter, and it reflected the sun here and there, as if it was made out of some sort of metal.

“What is it, guys? Seriously! Is it what I think it is??!!” - Rob’s voice was shaking.

“Hmmm…. Erm…. That would be so weird, right? How can it be?! Maybe it is a prank?” - Frankie stood up and was slowly moving away from us.

“Stop panicking! Just let me think!” - said Rob and stood up as well.

I was lying on my belly, pressing my face against the ice, trying to focus my vision on the object trapped below. I felt a surge of adrenaline rushing through my veins and tried to stand up.

The ice beneath me gave in with a deafening crack.

The next few minutes were most certainly the strangest and scariest moments of my life. Ice cold water rushed into my nose and mouth and blurred my vision instantly. I could feel my stupid coat quickly becoming the heaviest thing on this planet so I made it my goal to get rid of it. There were so many buttons! And my fingers were so numb...

I could see the metal disc right in front of me, tilted to one side and stuck in the mud on the pond bottom. A very strange feeling of sudden bliss and tranquility got hold of me. I was no longer trying to unbutton the coat, I was just admiring the disc. I could see small oval windows, going all around the edge and some other devices attached to the sides.

I thought I saw several windows light up, shining with green and yellow lights… And then everything went dark.

I saw a pond from above. But I was sure it was a different pond because there were proper mountains around it. Canyons stretching far and wide. A frozen landscape devoid of trees or any other vegetation. I was just floating above it, in a green-coloured sky.

The next thing I remember was Rob and his stupid hat, with his face very close to mine, saying something to me, shaking me and touching me all over.

“Oh my God, oh my God, OH MY GOD!!! Frankie, come here. He’s here! He IS HERE!!!” - yelled Rob. - “Come quick!”

My ears were ringing and I had a bizarre metallic taste in my mouth. It took some time for me to notice that I was soaking wet and it was very cold outside. My teeth started to chatter and all my muscles tensed up.

“How did you get out???? We couldn’t reach you, the ice kept crumbling right in front of us. Are you okay?” - Frankie’s face was pale despite the frosty wind, that appeared out of nowhere.

I assured them that I was fine and just needed a minute till my head stopped spinning before we could go home.

I didn’t tell them about the green and yellow lighted windows and the other pond I saw when I was blacked out.

I also made them swear on their most prized possessions that they will never tell anyone about what happened.

By the time I made it home most of the water on my clothes either turned to little bits of ice or dried up thanks to the bright January sun. I managed to sneak into my room and put everything up on my two radiators. I was determined to keep my diving experience from my parents.

“Sonic The Hedgehog” was no longer interesting. I couldn’t stop thinking about the spaceship that saved me from the pond. I couldn’t wait for today to come so I could go back and check up on it again. I didn’t sleep at all yesterday night, tossing and turning, with a bright full moon keeping me company.

I went back to the pond today. The weather was much worse and the snow was falling hard. I didn’t notice any of that.

The disc was gone. It has left behind almost no trace of its existence as if it was never there. The ice was once again even and shiny.

London, August 2021