Jacks House
The Sewer
There was this kid Dennis who lived behind us on the next block. Johnny and Dennis played together. They must have
been 7-8 years old when this happened. One day they decided to play in the sewer in front of our house. I'm not sure why,
might have been because there were frogs in the water. Anyway, they took the graded manhole cover off so they could get
in. How they did this nobody knows but they got it removed. Dennis climbs down the ladder and slips. "Ka-ploosh" right
into the water he goes. Not being able to reach him Johnny runs in the house and tells my mom that Dennis fell into the
sewer. My mom's like "what sewer?? Where?? What are you talking about??" He tells her to come look and walks out the
door. They get to the curb and my mom looks down to the gutter and sees the cover has been removed. She looks down
in the sewer and to her horror sees the top of Dennis's head thrashing about in the water. She jumps into the gutter and lays
flat on her stomach, reaches in and graps Dennis by the hair and pulls him up. Dennis is soaking wet, stinking to high heaven
and screaming like a banshee. I often wonder if Dennis realized my mother saved his life that day.