The four friends were hanging out by a small pond at their favorite, relatively isolated section of the park. “I’m bored,” announced Eddie. “What should we do to for some excitement?”
“I have an idea,” Tim said. “Let’s see which one of us can create the biggest splash.”
“I’m not jumping into that pond,” said Arnie. “No way.”
Tim laughed. “I don’t mean by us jumping in,” he explained. “I mean by throwing something into the water. Like a large rock or something.”
“I like that idea,” said Carl. “I’m going to go look for something heavy to toss into it because I’m going to win.”
Each of the boys ran off in different directions after agreeing to meet back at the pond in 15 minutes. Once they were all assembled back at the pond, each took a turn at throwing something into the water to generate the biggest splash.
Tim tossed in a large, gray cinder block, which produced a moderately sized splash before sinking out of site.
Eddie tossed an old tire into the water, but rather that generated a splash, it just plopped over, filled with water, and started to sink. “Well, that was a bust,” he said, laughing.
Struggling with a large, heavy rock, Arnie stepped up to the pond and gave the rock an alley oop toss into the pond. It generated a large splash. “I think we have a winner!” he exclaimed.
“Wait!” shouted Carl. “It’s my turn.” He ran behind a tree and rolled out a large, metal barrel and placed it by the edge of the pond. Then he used a crowbar to pry off the top of the barrel and a transparent, yellowish liquid poured out of the barrel and into the water, causing an enormous splash. Carl proudly announced that his splash was the largest and that he won.
“Ew, gross,” said Tim, covering his nose. “What’s that awful smell?”
The three boys, all holding their noses, looked over at Carl. “What was in that barrel?” Eddie asked.
“I don’t know,” said Carl. “I found it behind the factory and rolled it over here. The four boys went to the barrel and that’s when they noticed the markings on it.
“Damn, Carl,” said Eddie. “What the hell did you do?”
“I didn’t see it, dude,” Carl answered, “but I’m getting the hell outta here!”
Written for Sue Vincent’s Thursday Writing Prompt.
When I was a lot younger than I am now, I used to watch “The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends” on TV. I loved the show, an animated television series that originally aired from November 1959 to June 1964.
The main adversaries in most of their adventures were two Russian-like spies Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale. 
Other segments of the half-hour cartoon show included characters like Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties (a parody of old-time melodrama), Peabody’s Improbable History (a dog named Mr. Peabody and his boy Sherman traveling through time), and Fractured Fairy Tales (classic fairy tales retold in comic fashion).
Snidely Whiplash was the archenemy of Dudley Do-Right. Whiplash was the depicted as the stereotypical villain in the style of stock characters found in silent movies and earlier stage melodrama, wearing black clothing, a top hat, and sporting a handlebar mustache.
This, That, and the Other 