A long, long time ago on a familiar street not so far away it happened. The pool party in Neighbor Thomas’ backyard was to celebrate the end of the school year. And it started a tradition that continues on to this very day. But that very first pool party is what legends are made of and included: a midnight swim with all the neighborhood kids, a snowball fight in 80-degree weather, and a unique game with tossing a “vampire” bat.
I wouldn’t believe such a unique combination either, but I was there. The pool party was indeed at midnight. The snowball fight really happened. And what of the vampire bat tossing? I can honestly tell you now that catching a blood-sucking vampire bat isn’t as easy as it sounds.
A strange start to a tradition, I would agree, but would you expect anything less from the neighborhood filled with kids like Down The Street Bully Brad, Goofy Steve, Blabber Mouth Betsy, and the kid we all called Booger? Not gonna tell you why we called him Booger, but he was a good kid nonetheless. He was also the best bat-catcher on all of Flamingo Street.
We had just survived nine long months in Old Mrs. Crabtree’s third-grade class at Mt. Olive Elementary School. Why Principal Baker thought it was a good idea to place all the kids from Flamingo Street into her class together, none of us knew. We thought it was either to punish her or us.
There was one thing we did agree on, though: a pool party at Thomas’ house was the perfect way to celebrate being out of her class forever. Besides, his was the only pool in our neighborhood.
The huge light at the deep end 10 feet below the diving board gave the water an eerie, cool, sapphire glow. It also did something else. It attracted every sort of flying insect from the swamp into our backyard. Maybe that’s why the bat was so big.
Everyone had been invited to the party except, of course, Down The Street Bully Brad. But that didn’t stop Bully Brad. Even without an invitation, he made a brief appearance. Special note to all those bullied students out there: Throwing a vampire bat on a bully immediately stops them from trying to beat you up and gets them to run away as fast as they can.
Finding the bat was truly accidental and happened right after the snowball fight. During the previous winter not one but three snowstorms covered Flamingo Street. Big Brother James came up with the idea to make snowballs, store them in Mom’s big freezer in the basement, and pull them out when we would really need them, in the heat of the summer. Still a steamy 80 degrees at midnight, Thomas’ pool party seemed to be the perfect time to get them out of hibernation.
After the snowball fight, we dove into the warm water, and all of our sore muscles felt better. Special note to readers: storing fluffy snowballs in a freezer for six months turns them into rock-hard snowballs. Use at your own risk!
What started as basic jumps off the side of the pool quickly turned into fancy dives off the diving board to see who could make the biggest splash. Goofy Steve made the goofiest dive, Blabber Mouth Betsy performed the best swan dive, but it was Bubba Hanks who made the biggest splash with his trademark cannonball.
The cannonball sent a tidal wave that rolled across all of us and splashed gallons of water out of the pool. It also caused the strainer cover to blow off. Like a rocket launching, the basket flew up three feet before crashing back down and dumping all its contents. There, on Thomas’s pool deck flopped one huge, waterlogged, vampire bat. Of course none of us had ever seen a vampire bat before, but we all just knew that was what it was.
Booger was the only one who understood what to do next. In order to fly, he said, a bat had to climb trees and then drop off. He used the strainer net to scoop up and throw the bat into the air. Guess he didn’t throw it up far enough because the bat wasn’t able to fly. It fell back down and landed right on top of Bully Brad who had been hiding and waiting for his chance to make an entrance.
Dirt clods in hand, Bully Brad jumped out from behind bushes around the pool. He was ready for a fight with us, but not a vampire bat. When the bat landed on his head, he took off. We didn’t see Bully Brad or the bat for the rest of the night.
We learned two things that night. First, saving snowballs isn’t really a good idea. Second, climbing trees and then dropping isn’t the only way vampire bats can fly. Bats riding on top of a fast-moving bully will have enough lift to propel up and fly away.
[Rick Ryckeley has been writing stories since 2001. To read more of Rick’s stories, visit his blog: storiesbyrick.wordpress.com.]
