Yesterday morning, our pool vanished beneath millions of Orbeez. Something large rested under them, too deep to identify and too deliberate to be a prank. Carmelo reached for the net. I reached for the one name we had not stopped saying in three years.
The first Orbeez rolled across the patio when I opened the back door.
Bright blue.
No bigger than a marble.
It bumped against my slipper and stopped.
Then I looked at the pool.
Every inch of the water’s surface had disappeared beneath millions of tiny, colorful beads.
The water’s surface had disappeared.
For several seconds, I forgot to move.
Then I saw the shape at the bottom.
Large.
Rectangular.
Too straight to be debris.
I gripped the doorframe and screamed.
“Carmelo.”
My husband came into the kitchen carrying two coffee mugs.
I forgot to move.
“What?”
I pointed.
One mug slipped from his hand and struck the counter. Coffee ran beneath the toaster, but neither of us reached for a towel.
He stepped outside.
The Orbeez moved softly against the pool tiles, making a faint clicking sound that reminded me of rain hitting glass.
The Orbeez moved softly against the pool tiles.
Carmelo stared at the shape below them.
“Was that there last night?”
“No.”
“You checked?”
“I covered the pool at nine,” I said.
He looked toward the folded cover stacked beside the fence.
Someone had removed it. That detail frightened me more.
Someone had removed it.
***
This was not children sneaking into our yard.
Someone had come prepared.
Carmelo set the remaining mug on the patio table and walked toward the pool net.
“Don’t touch anything, Abby.”
What happened next changed everything… FULL STORY on the next page.
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