Guy--Part Nineteen

Splog # 77

Nineteen

 

   Guy didn't have any idea how the pebble in his pocket could provide aid in his current predicament. But then again, maybe he wasn't in real danger. Sure, he was spinning around and there were walls of water rising above him. But the situation seemed to be holding steady. He wasn't sinking and the watery walls didn't seem in danger of imminent collapse. When he had stopped descending, the spinning had begun to decrease in speed and now was no more than a slow rotation, like the second hand of a clock.

   As he spun around more and more slowly, he felt the pressure easing off him both from above and below so that he was able to bring his legs down into the water and his head up into the air. He felt a great deal of relief at no longer being in such a vulnerable position. And then, to his great surprise, he found that his feet touched down to a sandy surface. The whirlpool, or whatever it was, had taken him right to the bottom of whatever ocean or sea he'd been floating in. He stood up with the water reaching as high as his elbows and took a look around, searching for an avenue of escape from his strange situation. The walls encircling him were still spinning and it didn't look like it would be possible to swim up the sides to reach the surface. As he watched the movement around him and looked at the circle of white sky above, he realized that the water he was standing in was getting lower and lower. It was already below his waist. It must be getting caught up in the rotating walls, he figured. But what would happen when the water was all gone? He looked down as the water sank to his knees and saw something shining below him. Right between his feet, there was a circular glow of dark blue, like a painted glass ball with a light bulb inside it. He gazed at it through the water that was receding past his shins, wondering what would be exposed when the water was completely gone. But as he watched it, and as the water got lower and lower, the blue glow got smaller and smaller until, with no water left, there was nothing between his feet but sand.  He crouched down and touched the sand. It had a warmth to it, not like sand that had been underwater, but like sand that sits out on the beach in the bright sun. And yet it was still wet. He pushed his fingers into the sand and they hit something smooth and solid. Had the glowing ball sunk into the sand as the waters receded?

 

   Guy plunged both hands into the wet sand so he could get a good grip on the object and then bring it to the surface. He got a hand on each side of it, grasped it tightly and gave a strong tug. Nothing happened. The ball didn't move at all. Luckily, even though it was so smooth, his hands didn't slide off or he might have fallen backwards and been caught up in the spinning wall of water around him. He held on tightly and gave another tug and this time the object moved. But, to Guy's amazement, it didn't move towards him as he had expected. Instead, it dug deeper into the sand. This made no sense and Guy, impelled by a flash of irritation, gave a tremendous yank, feeling the strain in the muscles of his young arms. This time, when the ball moved, it pulled away from where Guy was crouched, but horizontally rather than vertically, so that his arms started to move through the sand leaving a groove where he had dug his hands in. Guy decided he must have gotten hold of something alive and he'd better let go before he got bitten or stung or scratched. But when he tried to pull his arms out of the sand, he found that his hands wouldn't detach from the smooth round surface. He pulled backwards with all his might but he couldn't let go. Did the thing have some kind of adhesive on its shell to trap prey or provide protection? He was now on his knees in the damp sand with his arms stretched in front of him, almost to his elbows in sand. He tried to relax to see if his hands would just drop off the ball but he was feeling a little frightened and that made it hard for him to release his tension. And then the creature started moving again. First, a few inches to his left and then a few inches to his right.