"Water" by Daryl B

            The gentle crash and recession of the waves lulled the boy into blissful sleep. That night, he dreamt of sailing on a vast expanse of blue. He dreamt of the sea rising and falling like the chest of some mystical, gargantuan creature. The powerful entity was benevolent; it provided the boy with sustenance from its depths and caused the rains that filled his cup. Even though the creature grew angry at times, and the child had to weather the storm, the creature cared for the boy with great affection. The boy loved the creature in return. He loved it for its comforting presence. He loved it for its general usefulness. But most of all, he loved it for its kindness.

            When the boy awoke, he lied in his bed in his cottage no more than a stroll from this magnificent creature. A sailor. A sailor is what he would be, spending his life as close to this beloved creature as possible. And with this resolved in his mind, the boy arose and went about his daily ritual. He filled a tall glass with water for himself and a bowl for his dog. Water provided the boy and his pet with life. He went out to the backyard and lightly sprinkled his mother’s garden with water. The boy filled a pot with raw rice and water and placed it in the cooker for his breakfast. Afterwards, the child took a leisurely walk to the shore and gazed out into the endless sheet of cerulean. It stretched out, limitless, elegant, beautiful. The boy was drawn to this creature. He took one step closer after another until the waves periodically rushed over his feet and graced his ankles. With a smile, the boy turned around and returned to the oceanside cottage, looking back to take in the glory of the expanse just once more. Water was the boy’s lifeblood. It was his companion and caretaker, and it talked to him when no others would.

            But it was this same substance that took everything from the child. It was water that had filled the lungs of his mother. It was water that had made her scream in agony as it flooded in even faster. And it was water that had made her body convulse as it prayed for some amount of air, for this oppressive being to simply go away. The same creature that occupied the boy’s happiest dreams razed all that the boy had come to love. He felt deceived. This monster cared about neither the existence of this child nor the life of his mother. It did not want to provide life for the people of the world, it simply just did. The monster could not care less about what lives it took. It treated every entity with an air of indifference that, to the boy, seemed arrogant and evil. And for this, the boy hated the monster. He abhorred it for its inherent evil and its use of its power. He hated himself for ever entrusting the monster with his devotion. How could he ever have loved such an awful being?

The funeral was held three days later. As the boy stood, his feet sinking into the damp earth, he stared at the gaping hole that was to be his mother’s eternal resting place. The sky was a dark grey as it rained down upon all of the attendees the same substance that had ripped the life from the boy’s mother. The rain fell upon the boy, who had not bothered to grab an umbrella. It collected in his sandy hair and pooled up until it had the weight to fall down his forehead and past his nose onto the ground. The boy was not aware of the other mourners beside him, telling him that they were sorry for his loss. It was as if the he was suspended in a pool of saltwater, floating in his thoughts. The only thing he was conscious of was the water that collected in his eyes and fell down his face, mocking him in his sorrow.

After that fateful day, the child avoided the beloved life giver turned monster. He refused to look at the behemoth 200 feet outside his door, but the monster was largely unaffected. He did not water his deceased mother’s garden as he had done before. The plants withered in the relentless heat of the sun as they cried for just a single drop. The bowls of water for the dog ceased to come. The whelp whined and whimpered as it too withered away until it was a dry husk. And the boy refused to drink any amount of water. He felt his body fail to work as it craved the substance that had destroyed everything. The boy was horrified, not because he was slowly dying, but because he realized that the monster was killing him even if it was nowhere near him. As he limped to the top of the cliff by his cottage, no tears stained his cheeks. He thought of his beloved mother as he embraced the monster and submitted himself to its eternal ebb and flow.