I was still intent, though, on meeting Jason as we had prearranged before he got out of our car and went inside his house.

We would meet at midnight at Blackmon's Pond and see if Charlene, the monster of Blackmon's Pond was real.

I laid on my bed and rested. I closed my eyes but I could still see the horrified looks on the people's faces as I was flung out of the swing rides and over the pointing crowd. How embarrassing! I groaned to myself.

I had left the lights off and I gradually drifted off to sleep, meaning only to take a short nap. I woke up with a jerk suddenly. It had only seemed a few minutes. I looked at the clock on my bedside table. It was 11:50 p.m. I only had ten minutes to meet Jason at Blackmon's Pond. He hadn't called me so that meant that our meeting was going to go as planned.

I carefully crept down the stairway, being especially cautious of the steps that were the noisiest. Mom would freak out if she knew what I was going to do.

I slowly opened the front door and stepped out quietly. The dogs were sleeping on the deck and looked up at me in surprise. Their tails wagged in greeting. Goldie yawned as if to say, what are you up to at this time of night?

I ran over to my bike and jumped on it. I had to hurry, this had to happen at exactly midnight. I raced down the driveway, remembering to avoid all the pot holes. Even though it was dark I knew where most of them were by memory. I looked up. The full moon was above me, big and round.

The dogs followed, awake now and alert. At least they wouldn't be messing with any squirrels this time of night I thought to myself.

The trees lined our street on both sides. They were large and dark presences, some seemed to lean towards me, menacing shadows that made me pedal faster and faster. My bike raced up the hill toward the pond. A cold fall wind caught me by surprise and chilled me, freezing my hands and making my teeth chatter.

My bike pulled up to Blackmon's Pond and I got off it, and pressed the button on my watch that lit up the face. Three minutes till midnight. Where was Jason? I looked around. No sign of him.

"Jason," I called softly, then louder, "Jason!"

Still no sign of him.

The dogs had gotten to the pond before I did and were looking at it, trying to decide if they should chance a drink or not. They weren't used to seeing it at night. Everything looks different at night, I thought. I could hear frogs croaking to each other. Some were louder than others. Crickets chirped quietly in the grass. The pond was silent, except for the occasional sound of a fish coming to the surface.

My feet walked over the deck's protesting boards, producing groans and creaks from it. The dogs followed me. I looked at my watch again, one minute till midnight. Time was running out.

I looked around for Jason, no sign of him yet. He was supposed to bring the sacrifice for Charlene. I don't know what he had planned to bring, maybe a grass snake or something. Even if I went ahead with our plans, I couldn't do it without a sacrifice. I looked around me and found a tin of worms that had been left on the deck. I could still see dirt in it. Dirt meant worms didn't it, I reasoned to myself.

I looked at my watch again, it was exactly midnight. I raised the can of worms above my head, my knees were shaking, and my voice trembled as I chanted, "Charlene, Charlene, come out and be seen."

I closed my eyes and waited.

Crickets chirped around me. I heard Goldie yawn again. Mutt whined as she watched me with her head cocked to one side.

I waited a little more. My arm was starting to get tired.

I heard a vague rustling of leaves behind me, but I didn't turn around. The dogs turned their heads. I heard Mandy growl and her toenails clattered on the deck as she left it. I slowly lowered the can of worms. Maybe Charlene didn't like worms, I thought. Then I sighed disgustedly, or maybe Charlene didn't exist.

All of a sudden a huge, clambering force from behind slammed into me and threw me off balance into the cold, dark water of the pond. I sputtered and stood up in waist high water. I shivered as I looked up into George's laughing face, his tongue licked my face as I grabbed onto the sides of the deck.

"George!" I said angrily, "What are you doing out here?"

I looked around me as I scrambled hurriedly back onto the deck. What if Charlene caught me while I was in the water? I pulled myself back onto the deck and scowled at George who shoved his big body at Goldie in a greeting. He saw me looking at him and licked the water off my hand.

I looked to see if George had accompanied Jason to the pond but I still didn't see any sign of him. George must have heard my calls and decided to investigate.

Well, I thought to myself, this is great, no Jason and no Charlene. Actually, I admitted to myself, I was a little relieved that Charlene hadn't shown. What would I have done if she had shown up? What do you say to a pond monster? And what would Charlene have done?

It was freezing out here. I'd fallen into the pond with all my clothes on, including my coat. I shivered and got back on my bike. I slowly rode back to the driveway that led past the pond. A dark shape came out of the shadows at that instant and slammed into my bike, knocking me off. My head hit a rock and everything faded to blackness.

I could only have lost consciousness for a few minutes at the most, but when I woke, I heard a strange noise above me, it was sort of a cross between a groan and a grunt. I felt my forehead, I really had a headache now, and things were starting to spin as I tried to focus. I smelled an odor that was strangely familiar. My hands went to the grass on both sides of me to push my body up, but my left hand found something hard and hairy. Something pushed me down and I heard it smelling my pond odor. Could this be Charlene? Maybe she'd left the pond and went after me. Hundreds of horrifying thoughts drifted through my mind as I heard the dogs barking around me. I heard the grunt again, it was a familiar sound.

It placed it's two feet on me and grunted again. It was heavy and stunk horribly. I pushed myself up off the ground and it moved off me. I backed away from the enormous creature and surveyed it. The dogs were barking and sniffing at it. It was in the shadows and I couldn't tell what shape it had, till I heard it make a familiar squeal when Mandy came too close to it.

Laughing and giggling came from the bushes then, and I saw Brian and Scott roll onto the grass, holding their sides, almost choking as they pointed at me.

It charged toward Goldie at that moment, and the hog came into the moonlight, grunting with anger. Goldie and the other dogs backed off.

"We heard you say you were coming out here, Kevin, to see the pond monster," Brian said, gasping, as he finally managed to speak, "And we didn't want you to be disappointed. How do you like my prize here? I won it in that drawing at the fair. We named it Charlene."

With that last statement Brian and Scott were caught up in bales of laughter again, rolling on the grass once more. Charlene, the hog, looked at me and grunted.

Oh great, I thought, now they had a hog named after the pond monster. I had a feeling that this episode would be all over school Monday.

Charlene saw Brian and Scott on the grass and decided that she'd had enough of them, I guess. She put her hooves on Scott's prone body and he started screaming, "Get her off me!"

Brian shot up onto his feet quickly and tried shoving her body off Scott with his foot, she turned around and grunted at him menacingly. Obviously Charlene had good taste, she didn't care for these two at all. She charged toward him and he took off down the driveway to the street with Charlene in fast pursuit and Scott not too far behind them. I didn't know hogs could move that fast.

I shivered again and grabbed my bike, feeling the knot on the back of my head. What a day! What a night! I rode quickly home, looking for the hog, Scott or Brian on my way. No sign of any of them, although I did hear some faint, far-off cries that might have been Brian.

I had managed to get back in the house without being seen. I had dried myself off and changed to my pajamas and decided to call Jason, I didn't care what time it was. I wanted to know why he didn't make it to the pond like he'd promised.

I lifted the receiver to my ear, ready to dial. Dead silence. And then I remembered. The Hansen sisters had shot the telephone lines and they still hadn't been fixed. Stupid me! How could I have forgotten that?

I sighed and laid back in my bed. My head still throbbed and I felt the knot on the back of it again. What would I tell Jason tomorrow when he asked what happened? I smiled to myself. Of course I would tell him the truth. Charlene had shown definitely shown herself at midnight!

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