The Castle in the Pond, Part 7
March 18, 2025 — 8:17pm
Dear Reese,
I make up that you are excited for your storytime in the bath tonight when I see you crawl into the bathroom twenty minutes early. I’m filling out the 9-month page in your baby book on the kitchen floor and you get tired of looking at the pictures of yourself from when you were so small (you were so small!). You take off and crawl into the dark bathroom and then peek your head back into the hallway with a happy shriek. Peek-a-boo!
When you’re in the bath we pick up our story: a giant black swan was racing over the water towards you! Its wings spread impossibly wide, dark feathers silhouetted against the purple sky. When you fought The Fierce Croc there was barely time for fear, you jumped into that fight without a second thought. Now, for a moment, fear is all you feel as if you’re still choking on water. You’ve heard of the terrible magic of black swans — ancient and powerful. You barely have time to dodge out of the way as the swan rushes past you — a single feather brushes your arm and it feels like the touch of a whip — and slams into the castle.
Bang! Bang! The wood cracks. The swan slams against the fortress again and again.
(Here I spread my arms wide before bringing them together to clap loudly. Too loudly. You start to cry and we take a break for a wet hug and the emergence of our friendly rubber duck before we continue with the story).
Fireflies scatter up and out from the cracking log. Their lights are dim and flickering.
Bang! Bang! The castle breaks and starts to sink.
No! You must do something. You struggle to catch your breath and rush forward but the duck, at your side once more, holds you back. “We must leave!” he says and starts to pull you away. The force from the swan’s movements has created waves in the pond, pushing you further away from the center. You watch the castle disappear completely beneath the surface, sinking to the deepest part of the lake.
The duck pulls at you and now he’s not the only one. The bats who helped you the night before are holding you too, trying to save you from an unwinnable fight. The black swan sits over the sunken castle, its wings still spread wide and for a moment they appear to fill the entire sky. His cold, powerful voice rings out: “I am this pond!”
As you are pulled away, through the reeds, to a place you hope is a safe spot to rest, you say under your breath, “For now.”
Love,
Mama