Borland Johnson committed suicide in small prison cell on the evening of July the ninth in nineteen and forty two. He was known to be a hard working man for all of his life, and a fair man, though not a very lucky man. Until, like many others in the small town, construction of the dam had begun. What was known to the locals as a 'stack of cash so high it could hit the moon' was being pumped into the project in order to stop the mighty Savannah river from flooding the towns farther south in the state. Borland had gotten a job with the crew, mixing concrete mainly and whatever other orders were screamed at him, and the pay had been nice. With everything seeming to be going so well for Borland, the police were very puzzled when they arrested him for the suspicion of the disappearance of his wife Jane, who had not been found yet.

Borland had not spoken a word to the police when they came to his home and took him away. He had not reported his wife as missing, her parents had, and it appeared that Borland had been sitting in his home for a couple of days doing nothing more than staring at the walls. The entire proceedings had been a complete shock to the police who had arrested him; they had known Borland for many years, and nothing about it added up.

Divers searched the water which had been backing up behind the partially built dam where they had found a white sun dress and a black pair of slippers, both of which were confirmed to have belonged to Jane. The search revealed no body, and it was believed her body could have moved through the wash over the dam banks and down the Savannah, and everyone agreed Jane might wash up someplace, but chances were she would never be found.

The dam did its job after completion, and the small southern towns banking the Savannah river flooded much less frequently. The rising waters swallowed the land, and if you had owned any by the river, it was mostly gone. River people became lake people. Virtually worthless land became prime real estate. Many families flipped the land for profit, but a few held on to what was theirs.

During this current time, Erin Moore owned a small cabin built by his grandfather on the coast of the lake. The cabin had been Erin's inheritance, and he had considered it to be a very lucky day when he was at the reading of the will. He and his wife Samantha were in the kitchen of the cabin where she was cooking dinner. Erin was ranting.

"I'll tell you something else, did you know Nate Grooly now OWNS the supermarket up town?"

Samantha smiled and said, "Nate's father built that store. It was left to him."

"And that was his lucky break, Samantha. He didn't do anything to earn it. He was given his lucky break the day he was given birth to."

She said, "You don't think Nate has ever had to work there?"

Erin frowned, "That's not the point Samantha. See? I am trying to make a point here. Nate is never going to have to worry about getting a job like the rest of us. He is just lucky that way, blind luck."

"Yes, I know what you mean, Erin. But it doesn't work like that for everyone. Most people have to doing something with their lives, and then doors open up for them."

Erin pointed a finger in the air, "And, there are tons of people out there who work at something their whole life, and they never have a lucky break. I am telling you, it's all luck."

Samantha shrugged, "Okay, Erin. Did you catch anything today?"

Erin said, "Huh, what?"

"Did you catch any fish today?"

Erin raised his eyebrows, "Oh, no. No, I did not. And see, that's what I am saying. It's all just like fishing. Luck. Just pure luck."

She smiled again, "And the fact you have to place a line in the water in the first place has nothing to do with it."

Erin said, "You're just not getting it."

Samantha looked out the window and said, "I will tell you what we are both about to get. This cloud out here sure is dark, and it came out of no where. Looks like it could rain any second.."

Erin exclaimed, "Doggone it! I left the windows down in the truck."

The cabin rumbled with a loud clap of thunder. Samantha said, "You better get on out there unless you want your seats soaked."

A steady patter of rain could be heard hitting the tin roof of the cabin and Erin said, "I got to get out there."

"Where is the truck?"

He answered, "I left it down by the edge of the lake. I had no idea we were supposed to get rain today.."

Samantha winked at him, "Well, that's bad luck isn't it? Maybe watching the weather would have given you better luck."

Erin had grabbed his jacket, which was not water proof, and put it on while he said, "Don't rub it in, Samantha."

Outdoors had gotten much darker, and the rain was drumming down quite hard. Erin knew his seats were already wet, but he would still need to protect them from being water logged. Close to one hundred yards was the distance from the cabin to edge of the lake where the truck sat. The ground had become mushy and slick; Erin slid and stumbled as he ran through the down pour.

One at a time, he yanked the doors of the truck open and cranked the windows closed. He sat in the wet seat of the truck and wiped his face with his hand, peering out into the dark rain hoping it would pass over soon. It did not. Instead, it was getting harder, and he was filled with disappointment. Lightning bolted across the sky, flashing over the muddy beach, and Erin saw something in the glow. Something on the beach had shined viciously during the spark of lightning; something close to the edge of the lake. Erin pressed his face against the passenger side glass and squinted.

Whatever it was, he could slightly make out an outline, seemed to be moving. Maybe it was the flow of water washing into the lake, but he could swear the thing had twitched, maybe even flopped a bit. Lightning struck again, and the outline was much more distinct for him now, and part of it appeared to have flip skyward and then slap the mud. If it was a fish, which he suspected, it was a nice sized one.

Erin could not resist getting a better look at it. He grabbed the flashlight from the truck glove compartment and jumped out back into the rain. Shoulders raised and head slumped in the cold rain, he walked over to the thing lying on the beach and shined the light down on it.

For the most part, it was a fish the length of his arm. There was a tail covered with scales, a dorsal fin, and a set of fins on the side, but something was horribly askew. A revolting fear stunned him when he saw the lips of the fish, which obscenely resembled human lips. The slit eyes were a horrible yellow. Probably the most terrifying feature was beneath the side fin where what looked to be a small arm terminating in a webbed hand.

Erin blinked a couple of times. He was suffering from legs which would not move, though his first instinct was to run. He could not take his eyes from it.

Erin asked, "What are you?"

The mouth gasped, but said nothing, and Erin could feel his own skin crawl. The light had begun to shake in his hand, flickering its ray on the shiny scales. Erin walked to rear of the truck and looked down at his plastic cooler. It was empty save it was almost full of rain water. Heaving, he picked the heavy cooler up and walked it to the thing on the beach. Cautiously and hesitantly, he lifted the thing and placed I in the cooler. He tilted the cooler to its side and poured out most of the water, except for just enough to cover the strange animal he had found.

Erin lifted the cooler and placed it on the back of the truck. He climbed inside the cab and drove back to the cabin. The cooler gripped and weighing down on him, he bumped his hips on the back door. It opened, and Samantha was on the other side. She inquired on the cooler, "I thought you said you did not catch anything."

Erin said, "I didn't catch anything. Not any fish. But I found something?"

"What did you find?" She wrinkled her nose, "It smells terrible."

"I have no idea what it is. But it is… you have got to see it." He started into the house.

"Whoa, wait, wait," she said. "You don't want me to believe you are bringing that in"

"I have to bring it in. I want to see it in the light, and you have got to see it."

Erin stepped inside and set the cooler on the floor. Samantha looked down into it, and covered her mouth with her eyes wide with shock. "What is that Erin?"

"I don't know."

A voice spoken but not heard, the voice of Rod Serling, said, "Take one rainy night and mix it with Erin and Samantha Moore… and their strange new find. It really doesn't make much difference how you equate causality, and the same rule applies to Erin Moore. Whether you believe in circumstances of fortune or demise, eventually events transpire to be what they are, and nothing much more. Erin is about to learn the price of what he considers to be luck, and perhaps he will even reconsider how tightly fate is intertwined with one's own well thought out or reckless decisions, especially when those decisions are made on the coast of the Twilight Zone."

Continued in Chapter Two.