The Bottomless Pit

When I was about 11 years old, I got an infected tooth in the back of my mouth. In those days we kids had to be halfdead or dying before we would go to our parents complaining of a toothache or any other ailment.

The tooth got better, but also very loose. I pulled it out by myself one night about 9 o’clock without either parent even knowing about it. There was considerable bleeding which didn’t seem to stop.

This same night my older sister came home from a movie with her date. They were parked in the front yard. In those days, there were no yard lights burning all night so they were there in the dark.

Since the bleeding didn’t stop, I went into the kitchen and turned on the light.

Going to the sink, which was under the window facing the front yard, I proceeded to get a glass, fill it with water, take a swallow, put my head down and spit the water into the sink.

The window was at the height where only the top of my shoulders and my head was visible from the outside. Naturally, all my sister and her date saw were my head and arms holding the glass as I took that swallow of water.

This bobbing of my head up and down continued for about 30 minutes or so which made it look like I was drinking water for 30 minutes straight.

After seeing this go on for so long, my sister’s date told her, “There is no way in hell that boy can be drinking all that water!”

Too bad he never learned what really happened.