Okay. You know it was quicksand. But when I was about ten years old, no one else knew. I only found out because I was walking across the lot behind my home—and suddenly began to sink into the ground. I can still see myself slipping off my favorite penny loafers, seconds before they disappeared from sight. And can still feel myself tiptoeing across the "mud" to the gloriously green grass beside it.
I remember thanking G-d that my parents took me seriously when I told them I'd walked across quicksand; and how they verified it, and told our neighbors-to-be who were just about to break that very ground for their new home. The couple who had to have their land filled with logs first, instead.
Oh, and my penny loafers? The ones I adored so much that I picked them out of the trash every time my mother tried to throw them away? Like historical mementos in a time capsule, they are planted below the foundation of that house.