The Reservoir Read Online Free

Crazy?  Hardly. 
    Back at the cabin, the group trouped inside, depositing the groceries on the kitchen counter.  Wordlessly, they put away the perishables and then, one by one, moved into the living area and took a seat. 
    Daniel dropped into the recliner.  He tipped his head back and raked his hands along either side of his head.  When he glanced up, his friends were watching him, their eyes fixed on his troubled, uncharacteristically pale face.    
    “Stop looking at me like that,” he groaned.
    “Like what, Danny Boy?” Niqui said softly.
    “Like I’m crazy!”
    “The only one here who thinks you’re crazy is you!” Zack quipped, and then stood up and began pacing.  “Okay, Dan, fill ‘em in.”
    He gave his best friend a hesitant glance, and Zack nodded in return.  Daniel took his cue and began talking.  “I was … um, standing at the end of the dock.  I ... was going to cannonball in.  You know, drench you girls.”
    “Yeah, surprise, surprise,” Kendall intoned.
    “Go on,” Niqui urged.
    “Anyway, I was waiting for you guys so I could launch, when…”
    “What?” Holly prompted softly.
    “I saw something.”
    “What?”  Niqui asked.
    Daniel rose from the chair and began pacing, opposite in direction to his best friend.  He didn’t speak for a solid minute, until Zack grabbed him by the shoulders and propelled him back into the tattered recliner. 
    “Talk!” he commanded, and then uttered, “and so you know, there’s a logical explanation for what you saw.  And not … the explanation you’ve come up with.”
    “I’m crazy,” Daniel said in a resigned, defeated voice.
    “You … are … not!” Zack bellowed.
    “Okay, okay,” Holly said, “Daniel, tell us what you saw.  Let us help you.”
    He gave her a searching gaze, but finally spoke.  “Okay, I saw a girl.  She was underwater, looking up at me.  She um, had a funny, greenish complexion…”
    The declaration was met by silence.  Finally, Holly sighed.  “No, Daniel, you thought you saw a girl,” she said in a reassuring tone.  “And yesterday, when I was boating with my family, and fell off the towable into 200-feet of water, I thought I saw an alligator gar coming for me.”
    It was Zack who spoke first in response to Holly’s statement.  “What are you talking about?” he said, his voice incredulous.
    “Well, the other day, I saw a show on TV about alligator gars.  Heck, from what I understand from the show, they aren’t even mean fish—they’re not even in this lake—but I thought I saw one.  And in my mind, it was coming right at me.”
    Daniel gave her a hesitant glance, and she raised her right hand.  “Daniel,” she said evenly, “this reservoir is big, deep, and if you really think about it, kinda scary.  There are trees, hills, and God knows what else under all that water.  It can make an imagination run wild.  You saw a girl, well, I’d rather see a girl than an alligator gar coming my way—even if they are wrongly tagged as vicious killing machines.”
    Kendall burst out laughing.  “Well, I didn’t see anyone or anything in the water, except rocks, stumps, fish, and me!  And I’m going back out there in a few to swim if we don’t get in that boat.”
    “Kendall!” Niqui cried, “where’s your sensitivity?”  When Kendall didn’t respond, she turned to Daniel.  “Hey, brother from another mother, wanna hear what I saw in the inky depths of that water?”  She flashed a quick grin.  “Actually, the water isn’t inky.  It’s green, but I read that term in a book.  Inky,” she laughed, “has a mysterious ring to it.  Anyway…”
    “What?” Daniel asked, bracing for her answer.
    “I saw a water moccasin coming toward me.  It was big, fanged, and about to get me.  I almost screamed, until I realized one, the thing was a stick, and two, we don’t have water moccasins in Washington State.  Praise God,” she added wryly.
    “Niqui, you are