When There Was No Water

By Troy Morash

Once there was a little village with little people, the largest being not more than a candlestick and the smallest not being less than a kitten's tooth. These small people were very happy. They always smiled and sang songs about each other, and laughed about how much they loved one other. They had a tradition of complimenting each other for two hours every time they met in the streets. They gave each other gifts three times a day and kissed each other two thousand times a day. Everyday was a picnic, with lots of food and music and love. All they did and all they ever wanted to do, was to talk and sing about how they knew everything about loving and being loved, about the secret to being happy. They felt so lucky and proud; everyone loved each other so much that it didn't matter whom they were with! Sometimes they could be seen in the streets hugging and kissing and weeping for joy, that's just how much they loved each other.

However, as cruel as it may sound, the malicious little fairy, Change finds her way into every little town. One day, just as summer was beginning, something bad happened. There was no water. Their dear little well had tried up. It had never happened before but the little lovely people had no reason to worry. Their leader told them that tomorrow there would be water again. So they all laughed and played and smiled and sang songs about how they loved each other. They danced and laughed and sang and listened to one another and kissed and hugged and squeezed and pampered each other.

Curiously, the next day came and again there was no water. That morning the people gathered round. They formed a circle and held each other's hands to listen to their beautiful leader. Some of the elders began to frown a little. Frowning was new to them and it made them very tired and a little sore but they didn't complain, as they didn't know how yet. Meanwhile all the dirty dishes were starting to pile up and all the dirty little faces started to itch. How could they continue to be happy if they were dirty? On the third day there was still no water, and so they invented arguing and complaining especially to deal with the frighteningly new situation. They started to smell bad and told each other so. They made up new songs about each other smelling bad and by mid afternoon had oddly enough forgotten about all the other songs they had been singing three days ago.

That evening their leader called a meeting. This time they weren't holding hands. They didn't want to touch each other. The leader asked, 'we have a problem. We must get water! Who is willing to go to the stream and bring it in pails?' It was so much work and would take up almost the whole day! No one wanted to work so they argued late into the night.

On the fourth day, rumors spread that some people in the village had a secret supply of water stored up and had been hiding it from the entire village. By evening they were hunted down, robbed and beaten.

On the fifth day the little water that had been brought from the stream was being fought over. The more hygienic people couldn't bear to be dirty and itch and had started bringing water from the stream. Unfortunately as they entered the village they were ambushed, beaten and robbed of all their water. Then come evening someone cried, 'The less people there are, the more water there will be!' So they began killing each other.

On the sixth day this continued between meals. Finally on the seventh day the last two people in the village escaped and relocated permanently to the stream. And so that is the history and fate of the little people who will always be remembered as the ones who "disinvented" love.

P.S. I have heard on good authority that none of this is true and that it was all a malicious lie to confuse people into thinking they can't love. But what ever happened to the last two people? All the authorities that I talked to told me that they died the next day. They drowned and were swept away. I wasn't very satisfied with this ending and so I set out in search for an answer to this question. It took several years of bar hopping and drinking and I think I completely destroyed all the inner workings of my body in the process, but I have heard and again this may just be gossip but I've heard that those last two people didn't really stay at the stream for very long and took a fancy to travel. In the beginning they refused to talk to each other and in a few short months forgot how to talk altogether. Several months after that everything was okay and they learned to love like no other before them, for lack of words. But just in case anything ever bad were to happen again which could make them not love each other for a short time, they invented chocolate, flowers and long walks alone.