Part Nine: Pond

Pond was unlike anything Walden had ever imagined. Blue as far as his tiny eye could see. Nothing but water that sparkled and glinted in the bright sunlight. Gazing across Pond for Walden was like standing on the beach and staring out across the ocean for you or me.  

Soon, the rabbit was moving down toward the water. Walden climbed up to its shoulders and held on tight. He fully expected the rabbit to do exactly what it did next. Upon reaching the water’s edge, it lowered its head and began to drink.

Walden didn’t move. He wasn’t scared. He was simply transfixed, held fast by the scene that stretched out before him. He set his gaze on the place where the blue waters of Pond met the very blue wall of Sky. For a moment, he tried to figure out where one ended and the other began. But soon enough something else was demanding his attention. A curious sound. A voice.

Walden knew the voice immediately. He knew the laughter it was filled with. “Puck?”

Walden had spoken the flea’s name under his breath as one often does when he is not sure of something but when he thinks that speaking it aloud just might make it true. But in the next instant, he was yelling the name at the top of his tracheae or breathing tubes. Fleas, you see, don’t have lungs like you and me. They have a system of tubes through which they process oxygen. “Puck? Puck is that you?”

The young flea looked everywhere. Puck couldn’t be far. Walden just couldn’t see him. He started by scanning the area just behind the rabbit.  

But he saw no evidence of Puck there.

Next, he searched all around the rabbit. He saw nothing anywhere. Still allowing his eyes to roam, Walden finally spotted what he’d been hoping to see ever since he hopped off Thor much earlier in the day.

It was the last place he expected to find them. He had to look straight down from the rabbit’s neck, but there they were. At the water’s edge. Puck and three of his friends. They were laughing, playing and having all kinds of fun.

Walden smiled. He could hardly believe it. He’d finally found other fleas. With relief washing over him, he hurried down off the rabbit. “Hey! Puck!” he called the moment his tiny feet touched the ground.

Puck turned his head the instant he heard the familiar voice. “Walden?” he said, just loud enough for the young flea to hear.

 “Yes! It’s me, Puck. I’m here!” replied Walden as he came to a stop several inches away from the water.

“Well, I’ll be. It is you,” said Puck, finally catching sight of the much younger flea. “What are you doing here?”

“I did it! jumped off Thor. I wanted to come and see you here. I wanted to see Pond. But…” As Walden continued, his voice dropped a bit, “I got lost and saw some really scary things, and—”

“Well, I’m just glad you’re here, Wally,” interrupted Puck, chuckling. “Is it okay if I call you Wally? I mean Walden is kind of old fashioned, you know?”

The older flea looked around upon finishing. His eyes settled momentarily on the other fleas who were with him. Walden looked at them, too. For the first time, he noticed that each one was sort of sitting atop the extremely shallow water close to Puck. “So, what do you think?” asked Puck, glancing back at Walden.

“It’s amazing!” Walden’s eyes remained on the other fleas. “But what are they doing?”

“Oh, they’re floating, Wally.”

“Floating?

“Yeah, it’s when you just sit on top of the water.”

Walden’s eyes remained fixed on the floating fleas. After a few seconds, Puck said, “Why don’t you come on down to the water and try it yourself. It’s really fun. You’ll love it!”

Walden hesitated, but just for a moment. Then, before he knew it, his tiny feet were covered with the slightest amount of water imaginable.

“So, what do you think, Wally? Do you like it?”

Walden smiled and said that he did. It felt different but nice. Then, he added, “And I like my new name, too!”

Puck and the others soon convinced Walden to step out a little further into the water and try floating. He was quite scared, but he wasn’t going to let the other fleas know that. So, continuing to step out into the water, he found his legs completely submerged. Only his body was out of the water.

“Now pull your legs up,” said Puck.

Walden hesitated.

“Just try it. You can drop them back down and stand any time you want.”

Puck’s tone convinced Walden to follow the instructions given, and in the next instant, he had pulled up in his legs enough that he was no longer touching the ground.

“That’s it,” said Puck. “You’re doing it. You’re floating, Wally!”

The young flea smiled and pulled his legs up a bit more. He was doing it, wasn’t he? As he sat back and relaxed a little, he thought about Febes. If only she could see me now.

For the next few minutes, Walden enjoyed floating along the cool waters of Pond. Every now and then, of course, he put a foot down and touched the dirt at the bottom. It was just like when one of us learned to ride a bike. You have to make sure you can still touch the ground, remember? In any case, soon enough Walden quit putting a foot down. He closed his eyes and started thinking about other things, like how he excited he was to have new friends, and to be in a new place, and to have someone like Febes to tell all about his new experience.

Walden had no idea how long he lay atop the water, floating, but at some point he remembered that he had better try and touch again. It had been some time. Walden extended his right front leg first. He felt nothing. He tried again, this time stretching his leg and foot as far as he could. Still nothing. Trying not to panic, he tried his left foot. He extended his left leg and stretched out his foot. But just like the right foot, his left one felt only water all around it. No ground. No dirt. No bottom of Pond. At this point, Walden’s eyes shot open and he looked around.

All the flea saw was water everywhere he looked. Letting his gaze fix further out from where he sat on the water, he found the shoreline. That’s when he realized it. He had floated out too far. He was in too deep.

“Help! Help me! I’m too far out!”

As he cried out, the young flea searched the waters around him again. This time he was looking for something different, or someone different.

“Puck? Puck, where are you?”

But neither Puck nor the other fleas could hear a thing, for as Walden soon discovered, none of them were floating or playing in Pond any longer.