The Puddle Myth

This was a long time ago. I’ve just never told anyone about it until now. I mean, a puddle full of the substance only legends speak of? Yeah, I’m sure everyone would believe me. But my time is almost up so I might as well tell someone the story. It’ll probably just fade into legend like all the other stories which I myself never believed.

It all happened because I got lost while playing hide-and-seek. A good note to all future generations is to never play hide-and-seek in the dark in strange woods. Because then you’ll get lost. And spend a long cold hungry night alone. Like I did. And then you’ll wake up from an incredibly tiring sleep and try to find your way home. But it won’t work.

In my case, I walked for a long time in the wrong direction. I was constantly looking around on all sides for some sign of the end of the woods. Until I was stopped because my feet had splashed into a puddle of the coldest thing I’d ever felt. Also wet. It was wet like the juice from any fruit you’d ever squeezed.

And wet in a world where water does not exist as its own substance except in fables is an extremely unsettling feeling for one’s feet to feel—lost in the woods or otherwise.

So, I jumped backwards and stared at the dark puddle filled with a strange wet something which had also soaked my shoes and socks and the bottom of my pants. Tentatively, I reached down and touched it. I was mesmerized by how cold it was and how much it sparkled and glistened despite how dark it was.

The urge to taste the puddle was irresistible.

As soon as I did, my mouth exploded with truly the most refreshing thing you could imagine. Better than any drink I’d ever had. And so, I kept drinking because it was as if I could not get enough of the magical substance. It felt as if it rejuvenated every bone in my body.

Fueled by the drink from the puddle I actually found my way out of the woods quite quickly. And when I did, I searched every book I could find to discover what the substance was. To this day, the closest match I’ve found was in a children’s book which described a world where this thing—water, they called it—was the driving force behind all of life.

Here, in my world, water exists only in fairytales. And also apparently in one puddle deep in the forest that no one would believe me if I told them it existed.