The Wather

The Wanderer       

             He turned off the radio and left home carrying a can of soft drink. It was very hot and he had only a T-shirt and a pair of shorts on ... "Water, water!" he cried."I'll die soon if I can't get any. I've got to cross the big desert with only this can in my hand. Before I get to the sea this can will be finished. But the water of the sea is salty. I can’t drink it?"

He finished his drink and tossed the empty can to one side. "Once, my village was full of water. But I see it become a forgotten village now. You can get soft drinks anywhere, but what I need is real water, drinking water!"

He looked around him glancing at his watch, "It's 2 pm. Where is everybody? Perhaps I'm the only one left in the village. Maybe I'm going to die, here, alone."

Water rationing had begun some years before when authorities realized the drought was coming. In fact, there'd been no rainfall for the last five years. Watering farms and gardens were forbidden ten years ago. The younger and smaller trees were on their last legs, the larger was just hanging on.

Before leaving his home he took a long rope and bucket from his store. He glanced at the mirror on the wall. He looked ten years older than he really was. His skin and eyes were yellow and his body was dry and cracked.

"I'll die soon. Should've left like most of the others. Crazy, stupid Semi! Why are you waiting for a miracle? Once you had everything. Now, because of what - climate change do they call it? I've nothing. I had to sell everything to buy water. Trafficking in the water! Have you ever heard of or seen it? Thank God I sent my wife and children to the city. At least they'll be OK there for some years. What about me? Why didn't I leave here with them? I must think about it. Sooner or later, I have to leave."

What few villagers there looked like walking skeletons. They moved slowly or tried to find some shade to sit in. Everything was stopped. No work, no business at all. All agricultural tools were going to be rusted. Many of the villagers left their farm, the rest were trying not to use up too much energy for that. The only poultry of the village was locked and the workers were workless. The animals perished. The nearest small cities to the village were not comforted. They were thinking about what will happen then? The rich people everywhere were in trouble too. They couldn't invest. The news was not promising. The big producing companies were blaming each other.

The villagers were so tired. Using the bucket and rope to plumb the depths of the well made them tired and hopeless. They couldn't work for too long. The village was isolated. The only contact beings were some helicopters bringing essential supplies and soft drinks. The villagers were ordered, "don't leave your residency, we are working on it." This message was repeated every second on the radio or the chopper came.

Semi had heard of some countries where it rained most of the time. The rivers overflowed in the villages and destroyed the farms. In the cities, you just had to turn on the taps. The rats had swam out of the sewage and had attacked people. He imagined a large sea and saw himself diving in. But it was salty and he needed a drink. He had heard some cities in some countries had totally been drowned in the water and their people had to live in the big ships. Most of the companies in those cities were closed and their tools were floating in the water. He thought about the elderly couple in the village. He'd seen them a few days ago. Perhaps they have a drink of water for me, he wondered. But when he got to their house they and their dog were all dead. The stench was appalling. He ran out, holding his nose. Then he saw the bike which had belonged to their grandchild. They'd left two years ago and the old couple had kept it so as to remember her by. He used it to ride over to the well.

He cycled past some dried farms and some dead forests. Eventually, he reached the well. There was an old dead body of a fox over there. He mustered enough strength to tie the end of the rope to the bike and lowered the bucket into the well. There was no water. He went down inside but found only the bones of dead animals. He got up to the surface and, exhausted, rested for a few minutes. He cycled back into the village.

"Imagine if people fought each other over water?" he said to himself. "Imagine if some countries were overrun by rising water levels and some countries dry because of lack of water? How terrible would it be?!" Crying for help, he reached his village and went indoors. He turned on the radio:

"Some industrial countries say "emitting fossil fuels will not help prevent global warming. They refused to sign the global warming convention."

He turned off the radio and took the last soft drink and opened it. "No way. Tomorrow morning, I'll leave too." He said to himself.

He packed his suitcases at night and early in the morning, he locked the door. There were some other villagers too on the road. All of them were upset and wandered.

“Where are you going, my brother?” He asked one of them.

“I don’t know, train station! Bus terminal! Whatever you do.” He answered.

“Which city do you locate?”

“I don’t know, wherever you are.” The man answered.
KZ