"Daddy," said the little boy, "how can we go fishing when there's no water?"
"We'll make water," the father explained. "Watch and you'll see."
The sand in the desert stretched long and flat, barren of any tree or bush. The father put down his saddlebag and took out a trowel.
"Now watch," he told his son.
He scooped up a clump of dirt. As the trowel hit the ground, there came a mighty crack and the earth split open. Sand fell away in a round circle; a deep crater appeared in the once-flat land. The little boy's eyes shone.
"Watch," the father said again.
He took a flask from his saddlebag and poured a single drop into the crater. A fountain sprang up from the sand, spraying white jets into the sky. The little boy laughed. Soon deep blue water filled the crater.
"Watch."
The father picked up a single egg, luminescent as a pearl, and dropped it into the water. A huge rainbow fish leapt out of the lake, its scales shining like oil swirls in puddles. The little boy clapped. Other fish followed the rainbow giant, frisking and splashing all along the surface, churning the water into waves.
"It is done." The father smiled and closed his saddlebag. "Now we fish."
--April 6, 2013
I wrote this story in about five minutes based on a photo of a boy and a man with fishing poles out in the desert. This was a prompt for my writer's club.
The imagery is truly lovely. While it is fantastical, it also has an ancient Japanese literary feel too.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I had never thought about the story being Japanese, but it throws an interesting twist on things. So glad you like it. :)
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