prologue: a long, long time ago

..........There was water. There was plenty of water and we used the water. There was plenty of water and then we wasted the water. The water knew how it was being used and it began to leave. The water went. The sun came. And came and came and came. It came all over us, making us sticky with sweat and when our sweat dried up, the sun kept coming. We (the world, the earth, my ancestors) began to starve. We (my ancestors) walked barefoot and grains of cracked, dried dirt stuck under our toenails and between our feet and in the crevices of our dried, cracked feet. Once, our feet made deep impressions in the wet, brown mud and our mothers told us to use the water to wash our feet before we entered the house. Once that once was over, our mothers began dying taking their mothers and our fathers and their fathers with them.

.........We had to live. There were fathers, mothers, mothers’ mothers and some sons and daughter who did not die. The water wouldn’t stay for all of us. We had to live. We had to kill.

.........The mothers’ mothers and their fathers.

.........The little sons and daughters.

.........And the ones who would soon be mothers. They were hardest to kill.

.........One would not be killed. We called her “K.” She should have birthed her little son or daughter months ago. Instead, she grew and grew. When it seemed like all the water was gone, she would go down to the riverbed. It was dry until she stepped in. We saw her from the top of the hill. We saw her washing her feet We saw her floating in the water We saw her dip her fat belly into the water As if the water were a toy, a trifle We stormed down the hill, weak with exhaustion and dehydration, heated by the sun and by our anger. When we got there, she would be gone. So would the water.

..........The heat the heat the heat. There was nothing but the heat. The breath we breathed was heat our skin was heat our tongues heat our heads heat out hands heat. And in the distance K played in the water like the overdue baby inside her body.

.........“We will find her,” said one of the mothers. “And when we find her, the water will return and the heat will go.”

.........This mother was right. She was so right she would eventually wish she was wrong.

.........On the day we found her, the sun was coming all over us and the earth was making a fire just below the surface. She stood in the dry riverbed and on that day, the water would not come, not even for her. She did not run away when we flew to her. We stopped when we were close enough to touch her, but we did not.

.........She held her belly right above her sex. She stroked her belly button and smoothed the stretched skin. We saw a tiny fist punch her from the inside. “Look,” she said, gazing between her feet, “my water broke.”

.........It was true. Between her feet was a small puddle of water. “Now !” screamed the mother that was so right.”

.........“No,” said K softly. “It’s still breaking.”

.........It was true. The small puddle between her feet had become a large puddle surrounding her feet. And her water was still breaking. The water surrounding her feet surrounded our feet and for the first time since we could remember the water washed the dirt away from our feet. It rose to our ankles.

.........“My baby,” K said with the pride of a mother. “My baby.”

.........The water made its ascent and spread to put out the fire below the earth. K was swept away. “My baby My baby ” but the water kept coming. It carried us up the hill back to our home. The dead bodies that we had made dead were scattered over our yards and on our doorsteps and into our houses. The water showed us what we had done, who we had been without her and then she took us to the ocean. There was K, still pregnant, the water rising, K, sinking. “Forgive them,” she said and we were carried back to our homes.

.........Never again, we promised, would we abuse the cool, sweet water. K stayed in the ocean, breathing the amniotic fluid of the sea’s womb, protecting her baby.

.........We don’t know where her baby is. If we ever break our promise, we will find out.