(Story something or other) Wayne never told me if this was before or after Janice 'cleaned' his pipes.

Wayne learned to smoke a pipe from his father, Walter but it wasn't long before he went from the student to critic, often chastising Walter for smoking too fast and too hot.

Their best times together was when they fished on the lake, in the early pre-dawn hours, each smoking their pipe and the water and air were still and there was no sound. It was dead quiet.

Wayne noticed it first, nothing more than a whisper in the dark. For a few minutes he wasn't even sure that he'd heard it but it was there now, like a pulse every few seconds. It was coming from Walter's direction.

"Dad", even his whisper cut into the night, "do you hear that?"

"What!?", Walter boomed.

"Sshh!", Wayne held up a finger that neither of them could see.

"There's a noise coming from behind you dad, do you hear it?"

"No", his father's whisper now faint.

"Okay, it's probably me"

They fished in silence and Wayne tried to scan the water beyond his father each time he heard the noise but it was too dark. "Damn, old man. Get your hearing checked.", he thought. He puffed on the pungent Sobranie and wondered if that was giving away their location, but to whom, or what?

And then the glow appeared, disembodied but close to the sizzle and somewhere near Walter. Wayne's heart seemed to freeze and his eyes fixed on where the glow was or had been because it was moving. It was behind them, Wayne was sure, because it was getting brighter and that mean that it was coming closer and it was getting a a little louder with time that it appeared. The lake was deep, very deep. What could it possibly hold? They'd never heard of any beast, any leviathan that anyone had ever reported seeing but people had gone missing on the lake. Maybe the witnesses had become the entree? "Nonsense! Stop!" he tried to will his mind to another subject. What creature from the deep glowed and sizzled when it was near the surface?

This time the glow was distinct and close to Walter, so close that it reflected off his face.

"Dad!", Wayne's voice snapped sharp and insistent, "It's right next to you!"

In the shimmer he saw his father's face spinning and the light moved violently as if knocked back and in a second it faded and disappeared with pop and a hiss and then there was nothing again. Absolutely nothing.

"Wayne, I don't see a thing, I don't hear a thing.", Walter whispered, "I lost my damn tobacco with you making that scare. I'm going pack another bowl."

Wayne breathed deeply, sighed and responded in a normal voice, "Don't bother dad, you burned out your pipe."