…She explained that early that morning, as the sun was just beginning to rise, she heard something strange near the pond. The flood waters had retreated, so most of the yard was back to normal, including the pond.

My mom listened politely to Thongsuk’s explanation of this strange fish that she had seen walking along the side of the pond on the pavement. I didn’t give it much thought, but I had a feeling it was a creature that had made its way to the pond from the flood waters. I went out to check on the pond and saw a couple of the large orange fish back in the water. There had been many more of them, but now I could only see two. There was no sign of the walking fish, but there was a suspicious trail of water leading out of the pond and down the patio…

An excerpt from my latest book, The Mumachen.