I enjoy baths—the water, the bubbles, the toys! With my duck float, Tate, there’s nothing that can get me like in the deep water of an ocean, lake, or even that deep pool at school. I thought that, at least… until it happened.

                It was a school night and I was taking a bath after finishing all my homework. Lavender scented bubbles frothed over the side of the tub as I played with my favorite toy pirate ship and a new rubber duck. In my imagination, Captain No-beard was exploring the bubble islands with his first mate, Rupert the duck. Most fun I’d had in awhile, I must say.

                My father had gone out to sign autographs at a local drive-in theatre, so I was all alone. I don’t think I would have been as frightened as I was if he had been home. I’d have probably thought it was him calling me from downstairs when I heard the muffled voice. But it wasn’t from downstairs. The voice that said, ‘I want to play,’ came from the drain. A wet and longing voice,  it was muffled by the plug and the water, but I heard it again. It said, ‘Please let me play.’

                I scooted to the far side of the tub, furthest from the drain plug and the voice.  I was too scared to do anything. The smart thing to do would have been to get out of the tub and hide under my bed covers, but I stayed in the cooling water.

                ‘I know you can hear me,’ the voice said. ‘I want to play, too.’

                Finally, I worked up the courage to speak. I said, ‘Where are you?’ It was the more important question at the moment. More important than asking who it was beneath the drain plug.

                ‘Down here, silly,’ said the muffled voice. ‘Shh! Don’t tell mommy.’

                ‘Down where?’ I looked, searching madly for a speaker or some other explanation for the voice. Surely this voice was not in the drain. It was then that I heard the scratching along the bottom of the tub.

                ‘Come play,’ said the voice and it sounded scary now, like a fountain of water came out of its mouth when it spoke instead of air.

                ‘I’m done playing,’ I said. ‘Who are you?’

                ‘Why I’m Tommy,’ said the voice, thick with water. ‘Mommy didn’t like me playing in the tub.’

The scratching at the bottom of the tub moved towards the drain plug. After a moment of quiet, the drain plug moved up. The thing under the tub was poking it. Poke. Poke. Poke. I wanted to rush over and push it back down, but I was frozen in terror. Water suddenly started rushing down the drain. Captain No-beard steered his ship into the whirlpool and disappeared down the drain. Rupert the rubber duck followed. After the water had drained completely, I stood up. It appeared the owner of the voice had disappeared just as quickly as it came. I grabbed my towel to dry off.

Then I heard the squeak from Rupert.

Squeak, squeak, squeak. My heart dropped into the pit of my stomach.

‘We haven’t finished playing yet,’ said the voice and it was clearer now that the water was gone. ‘Mommy didn’t like me playing.’

‘Maybe we shouldn’t play then,’ I said and since the voice cared very much what its mother thought, I said, ‘Mommy would like that.’

‘No. Mommy doesn’t like playing,’ the voice said, sadly. ‘Is mother there?’

‘No.’

‘Then we can play.’

I moved closer to the drain and peeked down it. I saw blackness and the faint shine of light reflecting off water, and an eye. Yes, an eye was looking up at me.

‘What if she catches us?’ I said, very much not wanting to play with the thing beneath the tub. I thought if I scared the owner of the voice into thinking its mother would find out, it would just leave me alone.

‘You have gills,’ the voice said. ‘She can’t drown you if you have gills and she can’t kill me twice. So we can play all night.’

‘She drowned you?’

‘She didn’t like me playing in the tub,’ the voice sobbed.  ‘Wait—’ The voice paused as if it heard something. I too heard something. The front door. Perhaps it was my father, perhaps the voice’s mother… The voice said, ‘Mommy says to go to bed. I’ll give your toys back next time you take a bath.’ And with this, it was gone.

                I took showers from then on.