This story happened to me a long time ago during the early 2000s. I was seventeen years old back then. It has popped up in my head several times over the past few decades whenever I’m feeling nostalgic, but recently I can’t stop thinking about it. So, I figured I should just write it down.
I grew up, and still currently live, in a very rural part of the United States. I’ve heard it referred to as a “flyover state” before, and I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t agree with that phrase. I didn’t mind the mundane nature of where I grew up though. I liked the outdoors and would spend most of my time outside with two of the best people I’ve ever had the pleasure of calling friends, Mario and Adam.
Back then, there wasn’t much to do in a town the size of ours, so we took to spending most of our days talking, fishing, and acquiring beer in any way that we could. Our parents were blue collar workers with labor intensive jobs that typically required 10 to 12 hour shifts. So, they were gone most of the day and were too tired to deal with us whenever they got home. They weren’t bad parents, mind you, they were just always too busy for us, which caused us to become very independent kids.
Because of their work life, Mario, Adam, and I would spend more time together than most kids could at that age. To fill that time we took to exploring the woods surrounding our neighborhood, which is how we found our oasis. That “oasis” being a medium sized pond located about half a mile into the woods behind the town’s old auto body shop.
You’d go behind the auto body shop–which hadn’t serviced a car in over a decade–and you’d find an equally abandoned set of train tracks. If you followed the train tracks away from town for about ten minutes, you’d stumble across a small clearing in the woods. Behind that thin line of trees was our spot.
From what we could tell, most people didn’t know about the pond which meant that it had privacy. It became our little secret, as well as our normal hang out spot over the years. We started calling it Damen’s Pond because the name of the abandoned auto body shop that the pond was located behind was called Damen’s Automotive Repairs.
We’d smoke, drink, fish, and have conversations around that pond on a daily basis. They were the type of conversations that you’re only able to have with the people closest to you. The types of conversations that shaped you as a person. Maybe I’m just being sentimental, but those are some of the most cherished memories I’ve ever had.
I’m rambling now though. All of this stuff is just background information, and it’s not the real reason why I’m writing this all out. I guess I’m just trying to give you an idea of what it was like to grow up back then. In a town like mine. With the type of friends that I had.
The real story begins in the summer of 2002. It was the summer before my senior year in high school. The last point in a young man’s life where he is free to do whatever he wants before the burden of adulthood takes over. Like most days, Mario, Adam and I were planning on gathering up a case of the cheapest beer we could get, as well as some cartons of cigarettes, so that we could spend the day relaxing on the rocky shoreline of Damen’s Pond.
I remember the day well. It was hot. The type of hot that was boarding on the line between annoying and enjoyable. All three of us were making our way down the train tracks to the location of the pond. Each of us carrying one of the essential items we needed to spend the day outside. Mario had the food, Adam had the booze, and I was lucky enough to be carrying the ice. The coolness of which was keeping me from overheating.
The ice was for a cooler that we kept near the pond for occasions like this. We also kept three lounge chairs down there, as well as a few fishing poles, and a mediocre assembly of wood in the shape of a boat.
Upon our arrival to the spot, Adam and I were immediately preoccupied with getting the drinks cooled right away, so it was Mario who first saw the pond.
“Wha…what the fuck,” were the only words that escaped his mouth at first. “Guys! Guys, come check this shit out!”
Adam and I made our way over to the gravel filled shore line leading up to the pond’s water. It was the strangest thing I’ve ever seen.
The entire pond was covered in what appeared to be a thick layer of ice. Ice. In the middle of summer. In what was probably 85 degree weather.
Mario was right, what the fuck indeed.
All three of us stared at this anomaly for several seconds before Mario started walking towards the frozen water.
“I don’t think we should go near that,” I called out to him.
Mario stopped right on the water’s edge and bent down to get a closer look at the icy surface. After a few seconds of close inspection he reached a hand out to touch it.
“Don’t!” I yelled so abruptly that even Adam jumped next to me.
Mario quickly turned back toward me, “Why? It’s just frozen water dude.”
“Yeah, frozen water in the middle of fucking July you dumbass. How is something like that even possible?”
“Yeah man,” Adam chimed in. “I don’t think we should touch that shit without knowing why it’s like that. What if there’s some chemical in it or something. If a chemical caused it to freeze like that, then it would definitely not be safe to handle with your bare hands dude.”
Mario stood up and seemed to think about that for a few moments before picking up a small rock and lobbing it out onto the ice. The rock skipped across the frozen surface of the water before coming to a stop in the center of the pond.
Mario turned back to us and gave us a shrug as if to say “seems fine to me” before bending back down and reaching towards the ice. My reaction speed was too slow this time. He had his hand laid out flat against the surface of the pond before I was able to protest.
Adam and I held our breath. We were expecting to see Mario recoil in pain as the surface of the ice damaged his skin or burnt him somehow, but nothing happened. Mario moved his hand around the slick surface a little bit before bringing it back up to his face and smelling it. There was an inquisitive look on his face.
“I think it’s fine,” he finally said. “It smells like normal pond water. It’s also not burning the living shit out of my hand which is a plus I guess.” He gave us a shit eating grin.
“Is…is it cold?” Adam asked.
It was a fair question. The ice didn’t appear to be melting from the heat, so maybe it was just some hard layer of filth floating on top of the water and it just so happened to look like ice.
“Oh, it’s definitely cold,” Mario answered. “And it appears to be thick as well. Thick enough to walk on by the looks of it.”
He stepped out onto the frozen water as he said the last part and started to slowly shuffle away from the shore. As if that was all the assurance he needed, Adam quickly made his way down to the ice. He followed Mario’s lead and cautiously shuffled out onto the pond after him, completely forgetting the idea that there were potentially harmful chemicals in the water. They chuckled to each other as they skated their way across the surface of the water trying not to fall over.
I just stood on the shore line puzzled. I was still in shock from seeing such a large body of water frozen over in the middle of the summer, and I was even more shocked by my friend’s complete lack of awareness of how odd this whole situation was. They were laughing and caring on as if this anomaly didn’t defy the laws of physics.
“Come on out man,” Adam shouted to me. “The water’s fine!” They both laughed.
I didn’t want to have anything to do with that frozen pond, so I made my way back to our hang out spot near the tree line and sat down in one of the lounge chairs as Mario and Adam continued to laugh and skate around the ice, blissfully unaware of the danger that they could be putting themselves in.
Several minutes later, after the two morons had their fun, they made their way back toward me and took a seat in the two empty chairs. We spent the rest of the day talking about the frozen pond. Things like, what we thought caused it, how it remained frozen during such a hot day, and most importantly, whether or not we should tell anybody about it.
“Who would we even tell?” Mario asked. “The cops? Because that doesn’t seem like a very good idea to me. I don’t think that they’d believe us if we just told them about this. They would want evidence which means that we would have to bring them back here so that they could see it with their own eyes. And frankly, I don’t really want every police officer in town knowing about our secret spot.”
“I agree,” Adam added. “And I mean, even if we did tell the cops about the pond and we convince them that we’re not lying. What the hell are they going to do about it? There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s definitely weird, that’s for sure, but I don’t think that the ice is hurting anybody out here in the middle of nowhere.”
“Maybe the cops could get some scientists to come down here and run some experiments on the water,” I said.
“But this is our sanctuary man,” Mario protested. “If a group of scientists come down here and see a frozen pond in the middle of July they’ll block this whole area off and–”
“As they probably should,” I interrupted. “This shit isn’t natural Mar. And just because you can touch it and walk on it with no immediate effects, that doesn’t mean that it’s still not dangerous to us or the environment around it. I just don’t understand how you guys are being so nonchalant about all of this. This whole thing quite literally breaks the laws of physics. Einstein is probably rolling around in his grave right now at the very thought that we aren’t going to tell anyone about this.”
I looked to both Mario and Adam, but they were staring off into the distance, clearly lost in thought. At this point, I could tell that I was the only one advocating for us to tell people about the pond, and it was becoming very apparent that it was a losing battle.
I was still concerned about the absurdity of the entire situation, but I could also tell that my friends were starting to get annoyed with my constant worrying. And as weird as it sounds, I kind of agreed with them.
Sure this was just some dumb pond in the middle of the woods near our small town, but it was our pond. Our spot. Our “sanctuary” as Mario put it. That means something to a bunch of adolescent teenagers. Frozen pond or not, I didn’t want anybody finding out about our spot either, but what the hell else were we supposed to do in a situation like this?
We were all quiet for a moment before Adam finally broke the silence.
“How about this. Let’s sleep on it. All of us. It’s already a little late in the day so how about tomorrow morning we come back down here, and if you still want people to know about this then we go to the cops. You have my word…our word on that. Mar, is that good with you?”
“I can live with that,” Mario answered.
I thought about it for a few seconds before nodding.
“Sounds like a plan to me as well, I guess. Like you said, it’s already too late in the day to tell anyone about this anyways, so we’ll sleep on it. I can live with that for now.”
And with that I got up from my seat and polished off the rest of my drink.
“I think I’m actually going to start heading home now gents,” I said. “That pond is starting to give me the creeps, and we’re officially out of beer.”
“Hold on,” Adam said, finishing off the rest of his can. “We’ll come with. Don’t want you getting lost in the woods again now do we.”
“That was one time asshole,” I said jokingly, as all three of us started walking. “And I was drunk as hell when that happened.”
“Remember how we found him?” Mario added. “He was halfway up a pine tree missing one of his shoes.”
Adam laughed, “Oh yeah, and what did he say he was doing up there? Something about trying to find a vantage point. We never did find that shoe that you were missing did we? Your sorry ass had to walk the whole way home with nothing but a sock over one foot.”
“Like you’re one to talk there Adam,” I quipped. “What about that one time you got wasted on that bottle of red wine and threw up all over Mario’s couch while you were sleeping. Now that was a shit show. You vomited dark red puke all over those nice white couches of his didn’t you? We woke up the next morning and thought someone had stabbed your ass to death.”
“I still haven’t forgiven you for that by the way,” Mario said seriously.
There was a brief pause before we all busted out laughing.
We were in that cheerful state of drunkenness when everything seemed funny to us. We spent the rest of the walk home cracking jokes and reminiscing with each other before we had to go our separate ways.
I remember that entire walk home like it happened yesterday. I remember how happy I was to call Mario and Adam my friends. As we each walked off in different directions towards our own respective houses I remember thinking, for no particular reason, that this would be the last happy memory we would share together.
And that was probably the last time I ever felt normal around my friends ever again.
The following day, after a fitful night of sleep, I decided to stick to my original plan and go to the authorities about Damen’s pond. Mario and Adam probably weren’t going to be too happy to hear that, but I did exactly what they wanted me to do. I slept on it, and I decided that telling someone was the only thing that made sense.
My plan was to pick them up at their houses and then explain it to them on our way to the police station. Unfortunately though, when I stopped at their houses neither Mario or Adam seemed to be home. Assuming that they just left their places a little earlier than normal, I hit up a few of our regular spots before running into them as they were leaving one of the local convenience stores.
Mario was holding a big bag of beef jerky, and Adam was drinking what appeared to be a half gallon of milk. I remember thinking that the milk was an odd choice. Not just because it was in the mid 80s outside, but because I was almost certain that Adam was lactose intolerant.
“Thanks for the invite assholes,” I said half-jokingly. I actually was kind of hurt that they didn’t stop by my house to ask if I wanted to go shopping with them, but I let it go. “You guys might not want to hear this, but I’ve made up my mind about the pond. I think we should tell the cops about it after all. Sooner, rather than later actually. Whether or not they do something about it is up to them, but at least we know that we did the right thing in telling them.”
They both looked at me confused like they had no idea what I was even talking about.
“Do we have a deal guys?” I pressed. “You promised me, remember?”
A look of realization finally came across Mario’s face.
“Oh yeah, the pond,” he said, flatly. “There’s no need to tell anybody about that anymore. Adam and I went back down there last night and it’s no longer frozen.”
Adam started chugging the half gallon of milk he was holding as Mario popped another piece of beef jerky into his mouth.
I just looked at them stunned.
“You went back to the pond last night?” I asked confused and a little bewildered. “By yourselves? Why? And why didn’t you guys come get me? Or tell me, at least?”
“You didn’t seem super on board with the pond in the first place,” Mario replied. “So we just thought that we’d go back down there without you.”
Adam finished chugging the milk, letting out a deep sigh as he drained the last little bit.
“But I don’t understand,” I said annoyed. “Why even go back there to begin with? What were you guys planning on doing?”
“That doesn’t matter now,” Adam chimed in. “The pond isn’t frozen anymore so you don’t have to worry about it.”
“Well, what if I told you that I don’t believe you,” I shot back. “I want to go down there right now. All three of us, so that I can see it for myself.”
They both shrugged.
“Fine with us,” Adam said.
We started making our way back to the pond. On our way there I noticed that both Mario and Adam seemed to be keeping their distance from me. They were walking ahead of me shoulder to shoulder, talking about something that I couldn’t make out.
Was this passive aggressiveness really because I wanted to tell somebody about the pond? One of the most implausible phenomena that any of us had ever witnessed. If so, it seemed like a really petty response on their part. I never knew them as the type of people to hold a grudge.
When we got to the clearing where Damen’s pond was located I quickly made my way up to the shoreline. My feet crunched against the gravel as I got closer and closer to the water, but sure enough when I got there I saw that my friends hadn’t been lying.
The water was no longer frozen. The pond seemed completely normal. There were no dead fish piled up in the water, and the plant life surrounding the pond seemed completely unphased. The unexplainable transformation of the water from frozen to not frozen didn’t seem to have an affect on anything. It was as if it had never happened.
For a brief second, I questioned if I had just imagined the whole thing.
I turned around toward my friends, baffled. But they weren’t even paying attention to me. They were playing rock, paper, scissors with each other. Mario made a gesture with his hand that was neither rock, paper, or scissors, and Adam lowered his arms in defeat. They then turned their attention toward me.
“Ok,” I said exacerbated. “What the fuck is going on with you two. You’ve been acting weird all morning.”
“We’ve been acting weird?” Mario scoffed, pulling a piece of beef jerky out of his pocket and popping it into his mouth. “You’re the one who wanted to come down here. We already told you that the pond wasn’t frozen anymore.”
“Why would I take your word on that,” I replied. “And how do you know that it hadn’t frozen over again after you visited it last night. It’s not like it’s obeying the laws of physics at the moment. Besides, that’s not even what I’m talking about. You guys have been distant from me all morning, and you keep doing weird shit every time I turn my back. Can we please just talk. Or apologize. Or do whatever it is that we need to do in order to put this all behind us, so that we can be friends again.”
They looked at each other and then back to me.
“Sure,” Mario said, deadpanned.
“Sure?” I repeated. “What? That’s it? We’re cool now?”
“Of course,” Adam answered. “We were actually going to go watch a movie back at my place if you wanted to join us.”
There were several seconds of silence as they waited for me to respond. I shuffled uncomfortably from the awkwardness of the whole situation.
“Yeah…yeah, that’s fine with me,” I said.
And with that, they turned around and we set off back towards town. Mario and Adam walking shoulder to shoulder again with me bringing up the rear…
I apologize. All of these memories coming back to me is having a larger effect than I originally thought it would. I figured that writing this all out would be therapeutic in some way, but if anything, it’s making it worse somehow. I’m reminded of all the good times that I had with my friends, but then the realization of the terrible things to come cause me to falter.
I don’t know. Maybe I’ll sleep on it, like I did all those years ago. Maybe tomorrow I’ll feel differently and want to continue despite knowing what happened all those years ago. But I’m tired now so I’m going to call it a night.