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Swamp
by Alun Williams
The swamp was alive, but no one believed me.
I noticed the change first. It crept nearer to our home every week during Fall, inching ever closer.
Pa thought I was crazy.“That swamp has been there since your granddaddy first came here. Doesn’t seem any bigger to me.”
“But it is Pa,” I argued. “I couldn’t throw a football even halfway to the swamp from the fence before, now I can almost reach it.“
“Maybe you’re getting stronger.” said Pa.
I knew he was wrong. I put sticks into the ground in six foot lengths leading away from the swamp right back to our fence. There were seventeen of these.
I showed them to Pa, but he just shook his head. I made him count them and write it down though.
After a while even he had to admit I was right. In three weeks that swamp took hold of a quarter of our main cotton field. There were only twelve sticks showing. Pa couldn’t ignore it any longer and called in experts from Louisville.
“It’s probably a land slippage.“ said Mr Kramer, the expert, wiping the sweat from his brow. “Heard you think it’s alive, boy.” He laughed and rubbed his greasy hand on my head. “A swamp being alive,“ he muttered. “Hell, I‘ve heard it all.” I didn‘t like him much.
He took a small sample of swamp mud and put it in a little bottle. “Smells like bitter almonds,” he said. “That’s sure one helluva stink,” he remarked before driving off.
Apparently his car veered off the road just before the highway and hit a tree. They found his body inside the car, covered in swamp mud.
Ma wants us to get out but Pa won‘t leave. He says it‘s all he‘s got. He built a wall to try to keep it away, a big wall. Now I can’t see over it, ‘cept if I use a ladder.
I don’t think it’s going to work.
Dog’s disappeared. It went out last night and somehow dug under the wall. I don’t think I’ll see him again. There are four sticks left.
The air is rank with the smell of bitter almonds. The swamp is coming closer.
© Williams, 2009
Alun Williams, 54, is from Wales. Member of Critters Bar, Zoetrope and Scrawl. Known as maxieslim and Maxwell Allen on these. Fan of Bukowski, Chandler and American fiction. Publishing credits include Write Side up, Bonfire, Twisted Tongue, and Cause & Effect. 2007 runner up for Kings Lynn Short Storywriters and Yeovil Betty Bolingbroke Novel comp.