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spark. ‘I think something is amiss.’
    Suddenly the pump blew a pressure valve, and when water started flowing into the casing of the pump, Phillip knew they were in trouble. ‘Move it!’ He grabbed Rhea and wrenched her out the back door. Max and Chuck exited quickly behind them as the pump exploded in a shower of sparks.
    ‘Shit!’ Phillip growled as the sparks and smoke subsided and the pump died a sad death. ‘So much for that idea.’
    ‘Um …’ Chuck was staring at the electrical cord that plugged the pump into the wall. ‘What is that?’ He pointed to a visible electrical charge that was moving slowly down the power cord and toward the electrical socket on the wall.
    Phillip moved closer, having never seen anything like it in all his time as an electro-mechanical design engineer. ‘I have no idea.’ His first impulse was to rip the power cable out of the socket, or at least switch off the power point, but Rhea held him back.
    ‘Don’t touch it,’ she demanded, as it was obviously live and faulty.
    In that moment of hesitation the strange electrical phenomenon disappeared into the wall.
    ‘Oh dear,’ mumbled Max, not wanting to alarm anyone with the thought he was having.
    ‘Oh dear, what?’ Phillip urged him to voice his woes.
    ‘I’m not entirely sure, but what if our watery entity has been empowered by the electrical charge and is now using the electrical system to transport itself to a safer abode elsewhere?’ Max suggested meekly.
    ‘But surely the surge guard will shut down the power once the charge reaches the meter box,’ Chuck posited, ‘and trap the entity in the electrical wiring of the house.’
    ‘Double shit!’ Phillip ran around to the side of the house to view the old meter box. ‘The electrician has yet to fit an earth leakage breaker,’ he explained his distress to the others as he ran. ‘There’s nothing to stop it from accessing the mains power, the local power plant, the rest of the town and beyond!’
    ‘Oh my God!’ mumbled Chuck, as he ran after Phillip with Rhea and Max in tow. ‘I know you probably think that the people of Berrensborough deserve whatever they get, having kept you in the dark, but if that thing gets loose in town, we’ll never pin it down. We have to stop it here.’
    Sure enough the strange charge passed through the meter box and started heading down the wire that connected their property to the mains power.
    ‘Think of something, honey,’ Rhea begged. ‘You’re smart. Can’t you think of something?’
    Phillip did not even respond; he was already racing to toward his work shed.
    ‘What’s he doing?’ Chuck quizzed Rhea, who looked even more worried now that her husband obviously had something in mind.
    ‘I don’t know.’ She ran after Phillip to find out.
    Her husband emerged from the shed, strapping on a tool belt, and carrying a large leather strap and a very long ten-millimetre cable.
    ‘What are you going to do?’ Rhea pleaded, already knowing that whatever it was, it was dangerous and she didn’t want him to do it.
    ‘That’s a five-mil cable that the charge is running down.’ He pointed to the thinner cable running overhead, as he continued to make his way toward one of the more distant poles on the property. ‘So, if I clamp it off, I can redirect our friend down through this MCI cable and into this ten-mil cable.’
    ‘No,’ Rhea begged, ‘you’ll get fried!’
    ‘So long as I’m only touching wood, I’ll be fine.’ He kissed Rhea, and then passed the leather belt around himself and the power pole and then used the strap to climb the pole, carrying one end of the large cable up with him.
    ‘Careful!’ Rhea pleaded, biting her nails as he reached the top and began work.
    The unknown entity was steadily moving along the power cable toward Phillip and as it inched forward Rhea feared for Phillip’s life. ‘It’s getting closer!’
    ‘I know, sweetheart. Don’t harass me.’
    ‘Um.’ Max hated to