" Water." He manages to speak. Spittle forms at the corners of his mouth.
Her face remains passive but there is a hint of decisivness in her facial expression. She nods.
" Before you drink, boy, be warned. Each gulp you take, takes one year off your life. " He nods. She reaches into her burlap bag beside her and takes out a canteen. He reaches over the fire and snatches the canteen from her with greed. His hands work vigourously at the cap, trying to un-screw the lid. Finally! it opens.
Water spills on his pants. He brings the canteen to his lips and proceeds to drink without counting the gulps. How wonderful the water feels running down his insides!
He swallows the water.......swallows........swallows.......swallows. She observes him without action or notice; his skin turns to dust, to sand, everything falls away until he is no more than sand against a sea of sand.
A smile passes briefly over her face then fades. She warned him but he chose an alternative death. She kisses the sand where he once stood then gets up, brushing the sand off her dress, then faces the sun; steps once toward it, now twice. Her figure, covered in brown, trailed by long brown braids, begins to fade. Now she is translucent.......and now she is gone. Like she never exsisted.
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