Deadly Waters

It was unlike any swimming pool he’d ever seen. Even for an estate the size of Bellhaven, this was a very impressive pool. It was sunk deep in the ground, and at one end there was a huge pipe leading out to the beach. A ladder leaned against the oval end closest to the house.

Adam was thinking a dip with Susan would be nice when he saw the shark’s dorsal fin cut the smooth surface of the water. His whole body shuddered. The beach brochures read persuasively of how meek and docile the average shark is, but Adam reached the conclusion early in his skin-diving training that he would gladly let the sharks have as much of the ocean as they wanted.

But finding a shark in a swimming pool? Now this was surprising. Even more surprising was the blonde girl, completely nude, who dashed from the house and jumped into the already occupied pool. Adam opened his mouth to yell a warning to her, but what came out was a muffled croak.

Susan, who had just seen the shark, screamed, “Look out!”

“Get my gun!” Adam yelled, and as he heard her start for the car, he ran to the edge of the pool, looking for something to throw.

The naked girl was trying to make her way to the ladder, but the shark was in the way.

“Don’t splash around!” Adam yelled. “Just tread water.”

The shark made a swift circle around the girl. Adam threw a lawn chair toward him, hoping to attract his attention. But it ignored the chair and moved closer to the girl. Adam couldn’t be sure if she had heard him or if she was even aware of the danger. Suddenly she turned and saw the shark for the first time. She clawed at the water and screamed.

 “Don’t splash!” Adam yelled again. She didn’t hear him. She frothed at the water in her panic. Adam threw another chair. The shark wasn’t stupid; it definitely preferred the naked blonde.

Adam grabbed a long-handled skimmer, the kind they use for raking leaves out of the pool, and took a mighty swing at the shark. The shark was faster than Adam and swam out of the way. Adam lost his footing on a wet spot and fell into the pool.

Now there were two of them in the water along with one large and apparently hungry shark.

Adam tried to remember his shark survival training. Come to think of it, he’d never had any such training. His survival techniques up to now had been to stay the hell away from them. He vaguely remembered that the experts warned against splashing around. Such gestures remind a shark of frightened schools of fish and tend to provoke it to attack. What else did the experts say? Oh, yeah, don’t panic. He wished he had an expert with him right now. Well, one thing the experts recommended did stick with him:  Get the hell out of the water. Good idea.

He swam backwards to where he thought the blonde might be, not daring to take his eyes off the shark. Over his shoulder, trying to keep his voice steady, he said, “Swim toward the ladder. Slowly.”

Then something went BLAM! and a geyser of water shot up just in front of his nose. His lovely partner, Susan Fallon, had nearly plugged him with his own illegal .38 police special.

“Don’t shoot!” he yelled. Susan had many talents, but she couldn’t hit the side of a barn with a pistol. She scared him almost as much as the shark.

She also scared the blonde, who suddenly grabbed him from behind and started to climb up his back. That pushed his head under water, and he ingested a mouthful of water and began thrashing around, making noises–all the things the experts recommend not doing.

The shark glided by to see if the man had been transformed into a nice school of mullet. When he got close enough, Adam kicked him on the snout and almost broke his ankle. Two things happened after that. The blonde let go of his neck and started swimming for the ladder. Susan tossed the gun to Adam and he caught it.

He saw the shark coming for him. Before he was in a position to use the gun, the shark made his move. He came at Adam fast, starting to roll to one side. Adam kicked furiously and tried to go the other way. The shark hit him with a glancing blow, and it was like being run over by a tank covered with sandpaper.

Before Adam could fire, he saw the tail whipping toward him, and everything went black.