Bath Time!

• Lacey Paaka, Grade 7C
• Short Story
• 2014

“Do not make me call your name a third time, young lady!”
Colleen held her breath, motionless, eyes wide open. She wouldn’t go without a fight this time.
“You have until three to get out here, Colleen! One...two...three! That’s it!”
Colleen’s heart raced as she heard her mother’s footsteps getting louder.
“Got you!” her mother shouted as she swung open the closet door.
“What kind of mother puts her child in such danger?” Colleen shouted angrily.
“You are the most dramatic child, it’s just a bath.”
Colleen froze as she saw the bathroom.
Her mother shut the door behind them and began running both taps.
“Just get clean. It has been two days, you’re way too old for this. You have ten minutes.”
Her eyes immediately fell on the drain. All seemed normal, calm, and quiet.
A loud groaning of pipes ran loudly through the wall to her right, making Colleen jump and splash water all over the floor. The creaking grew louder as it travelled up the wall and over her head in the ceiling, then down the wall to her left, then beneath her, louder still, until she heard it stop just below the drain.
Colleen panted, gripping the sides of the tub, her eyes fixed on the little black holes of the drain, waiting.
“Colleen.”
Her eyes widened. She heard her name whispered, Colleen felt a rush of water behind her, like what she felt in the lazy river at the water park. The water grew murky and starting pulling her toward the drain.
“Angela! Mum! Anybody! Help!” Colleen gasped as her clawed uselessly at the slippery tub surrounding her. “No! Not down there! Please!”
The pull grew stronger and Colleen gripped harder to the sides of the tub. She slowly inched closer and closer, kicking and shouting in vain. She pulled her legs in tight to her body, doing anything she could to distance herself from the terrifying fate waiting for her down the pipe. She would get sucked down, and there was nothing she could do.
In a final desperate attempt to save herself, she grabbed hold of the towel on the rack, but the tension rod slipped and gave way, crashing down. That was it. Her last hope, destroyed.
“I am not going quietly!” Colleen bellowed as ferociously as her tiny lungs could manage.
“That is for sure!” her mother shouted back, bursting into the room again. What is in the water! Colleen get out of there!”
She scooped up Colleen and wrapped her up in a towel.
“It was sucking me down! It got me! It was dragging me down the drain again! You see? It won’t stop! Just like last time! Don’t make me do this again!” Colleen sobbed.
“Last time?” her mother asked puzzle. “That’s why you’ve been so scared? Honey, you just had to explain this to me and I would have been able to give you a logical explanation! I take showers, so I wouldn’t know about the bath situation. It seems some pipes got crossed somewhere. That would explain the murky water and the suction. It’s not a monster! I can fix this, don’t worry. I’m sorry honey, there’s really nothing to be afraid of. You can take showers from now on, okay?”
She trudged to her room, exhausted, and collapsed in her bed, still wrapped in her towel. She felt herself starting to doze off as her mother’s explanation ran through her head. Her eyelids got heavy, she shot upright like a bolt.
“But...but who” she thought to herself, eyes widening. “Who whispered my name?”