“The Thing in the Pond” is a science fiction short story by Paul Ernst, who wrote many stories for the pulps and later, for other magazines as well. He wrote mainly in the sci-fi and fantasy genres. This story is about a man who returns to a scientist’s country house where he used to assist with experiments. There are reports of some sort of monster in the pond by his house. Here’s a summary of “The Thing in the Pond”.
“The Thing in the Pond” Summary
Gordon Sharpe arrives at Professor Weidbold’s Florida country house in the late afternoon. The driver comments on his elephant gun, and they acknowledge the report of a monster in the area. Weidbold’s servant greets Sharpe and shows him to his room. The servant is small and efficient, a contrast to the old servant, Sam Klegg, a surly ruffian who worked here ten years ago. Sharpe goes down to the laboratory to wait for the professor.
The laboratory is the same as when Sharpe used to assist, with its scientific instruments and containers of altered pond animals. He remembers the speck of chicken heart that was kept growing in a tiny vial for sixteen years. Professor Weidbold enters and they greet each other warmly. They talk about Sam Klegg, the former servant, who was fired about ten years ago. In revenge, he dumped some of the professor’s chemicals and experiments into Greer’s Pond, the small pool just behind the house.
They talk about the story of a monster in the pond, which the country is treating as a hoax. Professor Weidbold seems tense, as if he actually believes this silly story. His dog disappeared into the pond three nights ago. Draining the pond would be too expensive. Sharpe thinks it could be an alligator and says they’ll check it out tomorrow.
Professor Weidbold wants to show Sharpe something he noticed this afternoon. On the way, they see some cars slowing on the road. They know it won’t be long before sightseers want to visit the mysterious pond. Sharpe notices the pond isn’t wriggling with life as he remembers it.
There are cow tracks, deep and close together, leading from the neighbor, Raeburn’s, property to the edge of the pond. The animal was obviously pulling frantically to get away from the pond. There are no gator tracks, but it looks like something big and flat has smoothed out the ground.
Raeburn approaches aggressively. He’s been looking for his missing cow all morning and now he sees the tracks. He demands to know what’s in the pond. He dismisses Sharpe’s suggestion that it’s a gator; there’s no sign of that and nobody’s seen one. The community has been tolerant of the professor’s work, even though it’s not natural. He believes Professor Weidbold knows what’s in the pond, and he threatens violence if it’s not taken care of. Raeburn storms off.
Sharpe asks again what’s in the pond, but Professor Weidbold won’t say. Sharpe stares at the pond carefully and notices a slow, rhythmic pulse emanating from the center. Sharpe asks for some meat and his gun. Professor Weidbold brings them back himself instead of sending the servant. He wants to see what happens, despite the danger.
“The Thing in the Pond” Summary, Cont’d
Sharpe loads the huge gun, goes to the edge of the pond, and throws a slab of bacon into the green scum. There’s no response, so Sharpe throws a chunk of beef into the center of the pond. There’s a little movement under the water and then something pink and shiny breaks the surface and closes a cup-like opening over the meat. Sharpe fires, blasting a hole in the pink mass but it continues as if unaffected.
The pink mass sinks below the surface. It was too soft for the bullet to do its full damage. The water near Sharpe and Professor Weidbold becomes disturbed. Sharpe prepares to fire again and the pale, pink creature emerges near them and starts pulling itself onto the ground. The oblong, flat, undulating mass crawls along the ground, dropping pieces of meat and bone as it moves.
Sharpe shoots, with the bullet slicing through the pink mass without exploding. Sharpe and Professor Weidbold run off. When they look back, they see it sinking back into the water. Professor Weidbold hopes it’s dead, but they know this isn’t true. It’s not alive in the usual sense, with a nervous system and vital organs. It’s alive on the cellular level.
Sharpe’s plan is to order dynamite and sulfuric acid. They’ll dynamite the pond at dawn, and then have a contractor fence off the area. They’ll keep soaking the grounds and pond with sulfuric acid until every bit of the pink creature is gone. Even a tiny piece of it will regrow to enormous proportions.
They go back to the pond the next morning. Sharpe throws a bundle of dynamite into the green-flecked pond and they run off. The tremendous blast showers the area with water, mud and pink fragments, which immediately start wriggling toward the water. They’re blind growth that will expand and destroy everything! They’ll burn everything out with acid before they get dangerously big.
Sharpe looks knowingly at Professor Weidbold. He’s put everything together. Among the things Klegg threw into the pond ten years ago were sodium, potassium, calcium and sugar, which the professor used to nourish his piece of chicken heart. The chicken heart went missing, and Professor Weidbold reluctantly acknowledges that Klegg could have thrown it into the pond. It’s been flourishing all these years, consuming all the life in the pond. Now, it needs more.
Professor Weidbold explains that it must be impossible that one of his experiments caused this disaster. He’s old and doesn’t have the money or energy to move and set up somewhere else, which he’ll have to do if his fault becomes known. He implores Sharpe to see it’s impossible that a piece of chicken heart caused all this.
As Sharpe watches the last of the pink fragments fold over themselves as they travel to the water, he agrees to say it’s impossible.
I hope this summary of “The Thing in the Pond” by Paul Ernst was helpful.